noun
- Enzymes that catalyze the removal of nucleotides from the ends of DNA or RNA molecules, one at a time.
Usage: technical; biology; plural form of exonuclease
Examples
- Exonucleases play a crucial role in DNA repair mechanisms by removing damaged nucleotides from the ends of DNA strands.
- The enzyme DNA polymerase I contains both exonuclease and polymerase activities.
- Exonucleases are used in molecular biology laboratories to process DNA fragments for sequencing.
- Different types of exonucleases work in the 3' to 5' or 5' to 3' direction along the DNA strand.
- Researchers use exonucleases to remove primers and undesired sequences from PCR products.