Which of the following help in repairing of DNA?
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Ligase
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DNA polymerase I
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RNA primer
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DNA polymerase III
Reveal answer
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B
Correct answer
Explanation
DNA polymerase I serve clean-up functions during replication, recombination, and repair. It has 3' --> 5' proofreading exonuclease activity and 5' --> 3' exonuclease activity. The 5' --> 3' exonuclease activity of DNA polymerase I can replace an error containing the segment of DNA/RNA, paired to the template strand which is then simultaneously replaced by polymerase activity of the same enzyme. The process is called as nick translation. DNA polymerase III with its ten types of subunits has 5' --> 3' polymerization and 3' --> 5' proofreading activities in its $\alpha$ and $\epsilon$ subunits, respectively.
As DNA pol III does not have 5' --> 3' exonuclease activity; it can not remove the erroneous segments of DNA/RNA. RNA primer is an oligonucleotide, synthesized by primase enzyme, that is elongated into long strands of deoxyribonucleotides or ribonucleotides by DNA and RNA polymerase enzymes respectively. Ligase enzyme joins two DNA strands by facilitating phosphodiester bond formation between the adjacent nucleotides; it can not cut and remove the DNA segments and thus, can not repair DNA. The correct option is B.