DNA polymerase beta and DNA replication polymerases (Pol β, Pol α, Pol δ, Pol ε)

DNA polymerase beta (Pol β) and the replication-associated DNA polymerases (alpha, delta, and epsilon) are essential enzymes responsible for synthesizing DNA strands and maintaining genomic integrity. Pol β is a specialized enzyme primarily involved in the base excision repair (BER) pathway, where it fills short gaps in DNA following the removal of damaged bases (Beard & Wilson, 2006). In contrast, DNA polymerases alpha, delta, and epsilon are the primary engines of nuclear DNA replication, coordinating the synthesis of leading and lagging strands during the S-phase of the cell cycle (Burgers & Kunkel, 2017). These enzymes are critical therapeutic targets in oncology, as their inhibition can lead to DNA damage accumulation, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis in rapidly dividing cancer cells (UniProt Consortium, 2024). Many chemotherapeutic agents, such as nucleoside analogs like Cytarabine and Gemcitabine, function by competing with natural nucleotides for incorporation by these polymerases or by directly inhibiting their catalytic activity (National Cancer Institute, 2023). Because this target entry aggregates multiple distinct enzymes with different primary biological roles, it is classified as containing too much information for a single canonical target profile.

Other names

DNA-directed DNA polymeraseDNA nucleotidyltransferasePOLBPOLA1POLD1POLEDNA polymerase alphaDNA polymerase deltaDNA polymerase epsilon

Inhibition of DNA synthesis through competitive binding with deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates (dNTPs) or induction of DNA chain termination upon incorporation into the nascent DNA strand (National Cancer Institute, 2023).