Read the sentence and answer the questions 

The process of replication requires a set of catalyst (enzymes). The main enzyme is referred to as DNA dependent DNA Polymerase. E.Coli that has only 4.6x10⁶ bp (compare it with human whose diploid content is 6.6x10⁶ bp), completes the process of replication within 18 minutes, that means the average rate of polymerisation has to be approximately 2000 bp per second these polymerase also have catalyse the reaction with high degree of accuracy. Deoxyribonucleoside triphophates serve dual purposes. In addition to DNA dependent DNA polymerases, many additional enzymes are required to complete the process of replication with high degree of accuracy. For long DNA molecules, since the two strands of DNA cannot be separated in its entire length ( due to very high energy requirement), the replication occur with in a small opening of the DNA helix, referred to as replication fork. The DNA-dependent DNA polymerase catalyse polymerisation only in one direction. that is 5'-3'. This creates some additional complications at the replicating fork. Consequently, on one strand (the template with polarity 3'—5') the replication is continuous, which on the others (the template with polarity 5'—3}). it is the discontiuous. The non-continuously synthesized fragments are later joined by the enzyme DNA ligase.

In E.coli DNA polymerase complete the process of replication in ________________

18 Minutes

The correct answer is Option (4) -18 Minutes

In living cells, such as E. coli, the process of replication requires a set of catalysts (enzymes). The main enzyme is referred to as DNA-dependent DNA polymerase, since it uses a DNA template to catalyse the polymerisation of deoxynucleotides. These enzymes are highly efficient enzymes as they have to catalyse polymerisation of a large number of nucleotides in a very short time. E. coli that has only 4.6 ×106 bp (compare it with human whose diploid content is 6.6 × 109 bp), completes the process of replication within 18 minutes; that means the average rate of polymerisation has to be approximately 2000 bp per second.

This 18 min is basically the generation time but for replication of chromosomes it takes around 40 min. Ecoli can divide in every 18-20 minutes but to replicate its chromosomes it takes about 40 minutes or more.