In this video, we're going to briefly introduce DNA proofreading and DNA repair enzymes. DNA polymerases actually have a proofreading ability. This proofreading ability is just an ability that these DNA polymerases have to find and fix many of the errors or mistakes that might occur during DNA replication. The proofreading ability that these DNA polymerases have actually allows them to significantly reduce the error rate from 1 in 100,000 to just 1 in 10,000,000,000 base pairs, making mutations a lot less likely due to mistakes with DNA polymerases. However, mutations are still possible because 1 in 10,000,000,000 is still a possibility.
Other DNA repair enzymes, on top of the DNA polymerase proofreading, can also be involved in helping to correct errors that may not have been fixed by proofreading. Below in our image, we're showing you a little cartoon of a DNA polymerase proofreading the DNA sequence after replication. It says, "Looks like you made a typo here," and what this proofreading ability allows for is fixing those errors and mistakes in the DNA. Again, that will reduce the error rate to just 1in10000000000 base pairs, which is significantly lower and makes mutations due to errors in DNA replication much less likely. This concludes our brief introduction to DNA proofreading ability and repair enzymes that can also help reduce error rates.
We'll be able to get some practice applying these concepts as we move forward in our course. So I'll see you all in our next video.