Kinetic Mechanism of DNA Polymerases: Contributions of Conformational Dynamics and a Third Divalent Metal Ion

Faithful transmission and maintenance of genetic material is primarily fulfilled by DNA polymerases. During DNA replication, these enzymes catalyze incorporation of deoxynucleotides into a DNA primer strand based on Watson-Crick complementarity to the DNA template strand. Through the years, research on DNA polymerases from every family and reverse transcriptases has revealed structural and functional similarities, including a conserved domain architecture and purported two-metal-ion mechanism for nucleotidyltransfer. However, it is equally clear that DNA polymerases possess distinct differences that often prescribe a particular cellular role. Indeed, a unified kinetic mechanism to explain all aspects of DNA polymerase catalysis, including DNA binding, nucleotide binding and incorporation, and metal-ion-assisted nucleotidyltransfer (i.e., chemistry), has been difficult to define. In particular, the contributions of enzyme conformational dynamics to several mechanistic steps and their implications for replication fidelity are complex. Moreover, recent time-resolved X-ray crystallographic studies of DNA polymerases have uncovered a third divalent metal ion present during DNA synthesis, the function of which is currently unclear and debated within the field. In this review, we survey past and current literature describing the structures and kinetic mechanisms of DNA polymerases from each family to explore every major mechanistic step while emphasizing the impact of enzyme conformational dynamics on DNA synthesis and replication fidelity. This also includes brief insight into the structural and kinetic techniques utilized to study DNA polymerases and RTs. Furthermore, we present the evidence for the two-metal-ion mechanism for DNA polymerase catalysis prior to interpreting the recent structural findings describing a third divalent metal ion. We conclude by discussing the diversity of DNA polymerase mechanisms and suggest future characterization of the third divalent metal ion to dissect its role in DNA polymerase catalysis.