Only when the geometry is perfect does the enzyme proceed to the next stage, preventing the incorporation of incorrect bases. This induced fit aligns the reactive chemistry perfectly and excludes incorrect nucleotides that lack the proper geometry.
Proton Release During Nucleotide Addition and Its Role in Fidelity
The enzyme scans the template strand and assesses whether an incoming deoxynucleoside triphosphate, or dNTP, can form the correct hydrogen bonds. The coordination ensures that the replication fork advances smoothly as the enzyme continuously adds nucleotides to the leading and lagging strands.
This enzyme does not act randomly; it reads the existing strand and selects only those building blocks that can form correct base pairs. This energy coupling ensures that the addition of nucleotides is an irreversible, forward-moving step in the replication process.
Proton Release During the Induced Fit of Nucleotide Addition
Understanding this mechanism reveals how life maintains its genetic code across generations. If an incorrect nucleotide slips into the active site and a phosphodiester bond forms anyway, the enzyme can reverse direction.
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