Enzyme responsible for generating phosphodiester linkages between single-stranded nucleic acid polymers, prominently such as Okazaki fragments.
DNA ligase is responsible for repairing what are known as nicks in DNA. In addition to remaining from Okazaki fragment production, such nicks are present following certain kinds of DNA repair as well as molecular recombination.
DNA ligase is an important component of the molecular biologist's toolkit. It is responsible, particularly, for covalently integrating to-be-cloned DNA fragments into plasmids vectors.
To some degree DNA ligase, within these applications, can be viewed as reversing the action of restriction endonuclease. That is, rather than nicking DNA, DNA ligase removes nicks.
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