You are observing DNA replication occur at the lagging stran

You are observing DNA replication occur at the lagging strand in a mutant eukaryotic strain of cells that contains everything necessary for this process. If a 5 to 3 exonuclease activity was disrupted: a) Would the cell be able to synthesize a new strand? b) What (if any) effect would this have on replication?

Solution

a: No, the replication would be interupted due to non removal of primer from template strand.
b: The 5\' to 3\' exonuclease activity of DNA polymerase enzyme serves to replace a DNA or RNA segment which is paired to the template strand by the process of nick translation. it serves to remove the RNA primer from the template strand and then the polymerization activity of the same enzyme serves to extend the nontemplate strand to fill the gap. In absence of 5\'to 3\' exonuclease activity, the RNA primers would not be removed from the template strand leading to the interupted DNA replication.