Hydrogen bonding, base stacking, and steric effects in DNA replication

Understanding the mechanisms by which genetic information is replicated is important both to basic knowledge of biological organisms and to many usefu l applications in biomedical research and biotechnology. One of the main fu nctions of a DNA polymerase enzyme is to help DNA recognize itself with hig h specificity when a strand is being copied. Recent studies have shed new l ight on the question of what physical forces cause a polymerase enzyme to i nsert a nucleotide into a strand of DNA and to choose the correct nucleotid e over the incorrect ones. This is discussed in the light of three main for ces that govern DNA recognition: base stacking, Watson-Crick hydrogen bondi ng, and steric interactions. These factors are studied with natural and str ucturally altered DNA nucleosides.