Abstract
The identification and partial purification by Arthur Kornberg and his colleagues in 1956 of an enzyme ? DNA polymerase I of Escherichia coli ? that catalysed the stable incorporation of deoxyribonucleotides into DNA in vitro came as a surprise. At the time, most scientists in the field believed that DNA synthesis was too complicated to be accurately reflected outside the living cell.
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Acknowledgements
I apologize for the necessarily restricted listing of references concerning mammalian DNA polymerases. I thank L. Loeb, M. DePamphilis, U. Hubscher, T. Kunkel, S. Wilson and D. Bogenhagen for helpful discussions, and L. McDaniel and N. Kosarek for careful reading of the manuscript.
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Friedberg, E. The eureka enzyme: the discovery of DNA polymerase. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 7, 143–147 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm1787
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm1787
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