Question

What happens if primase is not present?

Answer 1

Enzymes:

1. Enzymes play the role of biological catalysts.
2. Chemical processes are accelerated by catalysts.
3. Substrates are molecules that enzymes may interact with, and the enzyme converts the substrates into other compounds known as products.
4. Almost all metabolic activities in the cell require enzyme catalysis to occur at fast enough rates to support life.
5. Enzymes catalyse individual stages in metabolic processes.

DNA replication:

1. It is the process of duplicating a double-stranded DNA molecule to produce two identical DNA molecules.
2. Replication is essential because when a cell divides, the two new daughter cells must have the same genetic information as the parent cell, which is stored in the form of DNA.

Primase:

1. It is an enzyme that generates primers, which are short RNA sequences.
2. These primers serve as a starting point for DNA synthesis.
3. Primase is an RNA polymerase since it produces RNA molecules.
4. Primase is required because DNA polymerases cannot begin polymer synthesis on single-stranded DNA templates.
5. They can only extend from a primer's 3′-hydroxyl.
6. Because DNA polymerase can only add nucleotides to the growing chain if primase is absent, replication cannot commence.