Enzymatic Synthesis of Deoxyribonucleic Acid. V. Chemical Composition of Enzymatically Synthesized Deoxyribonucleic Acid
Year: 1958
Type: article
Abstract: In considering how a complex polynucleotide such as DNA1 is assembled by a cell, the authors were guided by the known enzy-matic mechanisms for the synthesis of the simplest of the nucleo-tide derivatives, the coenzymes. The latter, whether composed of an adenosine, uridine, guanosine, or cytidine nucleotide, are formed by a nucleotidyl transfer from a nucleoside triphosphate to the phosphate ester which provides the coenzymatically active portion of the molecule (1, 2). This condensation, which has been regarded as a nucleophilic attack (3) on the innermost or nucleotidyl phosphorus of the nucleoside triphosphate, results in the attachment of the nucleotidyl unit to the attacking group and in the elimination of inorganic pyrophosphate. By analogy, the development of a DNA chain might entail a similar condensa-tion, in this case between a deoxynucleoside triphosphate with the hydroxyl group of the deoxyribose carbon-3 of another de-
Institution: Washington University in St. Louis
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2017426348