What is the role of DNA polymerase during DNA replication?

DNA polymerase plays a central role in DNA replication by catalyzing the addition of nucleotides to the growing DNA strand. It reads the template strand in the 3′ to 5′ direction and synthesizes a new complementary strand in the 5′ to 3′ direction. DNA polymerase also has proofreading abilities, allowing it to detect and correct errors during replication. It works in conjunction with other enzymes, such as helicase, to unwind the DNA and primase to add RNA primers, providing the foundation for replication to proceed.