Question

In eukaryotic dna replication, lagging strand is formed by

Answer 1

Eukaryotic DNA replication is carried by many different enzymes, the most important being DNA polymerase.

• DNA polymerase in eukaryotes synthesises both the strands of DNA simultaneously by 5' to 3' polymerase activity.
• However, in the lagging strand, this polymerization is from 3' to 5' end due to anti-parallel property of the parent strands. This reduces the speed of synthesis of lagging strand.
• The synthesis on leading strand is continuous while it is dis-continuous in the lagging strand. This results in the formation of dis-continuous strands of DNA called Okazaki fragments.
• The Okazaki fragments are later joined together to form a single strand by the enzyme DNA ligase.