DNA polymerase
![](/Images/godic/202501/09/DNA_polymerase1152.png")
![DNA polymerase moves along the old strand in the 3'-5' direction, creating a new strand having a 5'-3' direction.](/Images/godic/202501/09/Replication_fork.svg1152.png")
![DNA polymerase with proofreading ability](/Images/godic/202501/09/DNA_polymerase.svg1152.png")
![](/Images/godic/202501/09/PDB_2hht_EBI1152.jpg")
In molecular biology, DNA polymerases are enzymes that synthesize DNA molecules from deoxyribonucleotides, the building blocks of DNA. These enzymes are essential to DNA replication and usually work in pairs to create two identical DNA strands from a single original DNA molecule. During this process, DNA polymerase “reads” the existing DNA strands to create two new strands that match the existing ones.