Polymerase
An enzyme that synthesizes long chains of nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) by reading a template strand. DNA polymerase copies DNA; RNA polymerase transcribes DNA into RNA.
Used in the Books
This term appears in 2 chapters:
"...plication: Copying Information with Precision Before any cell divides, it must replicate its entire genome. The process is staggeringly precise: DNA polymerase enzymes copy three billion base pairs with an error rate of roughly one mistake per billion base pairs. How? The mechanism is elegant."
"...instructions encoding proteins, regulatory elements, and structural RNAs. Mutations occur through several mechanisms: 1. Replication errors: DNA polymerase (the enzyme copying DNA during cell division) makes mistakes at a baseline rate. In bacteria, it's ~10^-10 errors per base pair per generation."
Biological Context
Polymerases are molecular machines that read templates and assemble copies. They include proofreading capabilities to minimize errors. PCR (polymerase chain reaction) uses heat-stable polymerases to amplify DNA.
Business Application
Organizational polymerases: the people and processes that copy and propagate information. Training programs, documentation systems, and knowledge transfer mechanisms are business polymerases.