Tags: Protein.
DNA polymerase alpha catalytic subunit is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the POLA1 gene.Pol α has limited processivity and lacks 3′ exonuclease activity for proofreading errors. Thus it is not well suited to efficiently and accurately copy long templates (unlike Pol Delta and Epsilon). Instead it plays a more limited role in replication. Pol α is responsible for the initiation of DNA replication at origins and during lagging-strand synthesis of Okazaki fragments.