DNA polymerase epsilon is a member of the

DNA polymerase A DNA polymerase is a member of a family of enzymes that catalyze the synthesis of DNA molecules from nucleoside triphosphates, the molecular precursors of DNA. These enzymes are essential for DNA replication and usually work in groups to create t ...

family of enzymes found in

eukaryotes The eukaryotes ( ) constitute the domain of Eukaryota or Eukarya, organisms whose cells have a membrane-bound nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, seaweeds, and many unicellular organisms are eukaryotes. They constitute a major group of ...

. It is composed of the following four subunits: POLE (central catalytic unit),

POLE2 DNA polymerase epsilon subunit 2 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''POLE2'' gene. Interactions POLE2 has been shown to Protein-protein interaction, interact with SAP18. References Further reading * * * * * External links PDBe ...

(subunit 2), POLE3 (subunit 3), and POLE4 (subunit 4). Recent evidence suggests that it plays a major role in leading strand DNA synthesis and

nucleotide Nucleotides are Organic compound, organic molecules composed of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both o ...

and

base excision repair Base excision repair (BER) is a cellular mechanism, studied in the fields of biochemistry and genetics, that repairs damaged DNA throughout the cell cycle. It is responsible primarily for removing small, non-helix-distorting base lesions from t ...

. Research had conducted to study nucleotide excision repair DNA synthesis by DNA polymerase epsilon in the presence of

PCNA Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is a DNA clamp that acts as a processivity factor for DNA polymerase delta, DNA polymerase δ in eukaryotic cell (biology), cells and is essential for replication. PCNA is a homotrimer and achieves its ...

(proliferating cell nuclear antigen), RFC (replication factor C) and RPA (replication protein A). Either DNA polymerase epsilon or

DNA polymerase delta DNA polymerase delta (DNA Pol δ) is an enzyme complex found in eukaryotes that is involved in DNA replication and repair. The DNA polymerase delta complex consists of 4 subunits: POLD1, POLD2, POLD3, and POLD4. DNA Pol δ is an enzyme used f ...

along with DNA ligase can be used to repair UV-damaged DNA. However, it is found that DNA polymerase delta require the presence of both RFC and PCNA in order in DNA repair. In addition, it only produces small amount of fractionated DNA ligated products. DNA polymerase epsilon proves to be best suited for nucleotide excision repair. DNA polymerase epsilon is independent of both PCNA and RFC, and produces mostly ligated DNA products. It is also found that under one condition where DNA polymerase epsilon require PCNA and RFC: nucleotide excision repair in the presence of single strand binding protein RPA. PCNA and RFC function as anchor and direct DNA polymerase epsilon onto the DNA template.

References

Polymerase chain reaction DNA replication DNA repair DNA-binding proteins {{enzyme-stub