RECALL NOTES

In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick worked out that DNA is double helix like twisted
staircase/ the 2 sugar-phosphate backbones make up the sides and the base pairs make up the
rungs or steps of the twisted staircase.
DNA is copied during interphase prior to mitosis and meiosis. It is important that new copies are
exactly like the original molecule. The structure of the DNA provides mechanism for making
accurate copies of the molecule. The process of making copies of DNA is called replication. When
DNA replicates, 2 identical copies of DNA molecules are produced, which are exactly the same as
the original.
How does each new cell - All of it is copied through a process called DNA replication, so
get all of the genetic that when a cell divides each resulting cell keeps a copy of all of
material? your chromosomes.
Process of DNA 1. Helicase – it unwinds the double helix and disrupts the hydrogen
replication bonds between the bases, thus separating the DNA into individual
strands and creating a replication fork.

The unwinding of the helix generates strain further ahead in the chain,
so topoisomerase will break, untwist, and reconnect the DNA, always
ahead of the replication fork.

2. Primase – anneal an RNA primer at a specific location to kick

start the replication. This primer is about 5-10 nucleotides long.

3. DNA polymerase III - binds to the primer and begins to generate

a whole new complementary strand, adding nucleotides to the
new chain that was initiated by the primer.

Nucleotides enter the active site and polymerase catalyzes formation of

the phosphodiester bond this connect the phosphate group of each
nucleotide to the previous one or joins each new nucleotide as it is
added to the complementary strand.

This process will be different for each strand because polymerase will
always add nucleotides to the 3’ end of the existing strand, not the 5’.
And the strands are anti-parallel, so the replication must be in opposite
directions for the opposing strands.

Leading strand(3’ to 5’) On the leading strand, DNA replication moves along with the replication
fork, polymerase follows helicase and synthesize one continuous strand
or continuously synthesizing the complementary strand and requiring
only the initial primer.

Lagging strand (5’ to 3’) On the lagging strand, polymerase has to go one chunk at a time as new
template is made available (polymerase must copy one section at a
time as more template is made available). These chunks are called
Okazaki fragments (that are around 100-200 nucleotides). Each one will
require its own primer for polymerase to bind and copy the new
fragment.

4. After each fragment is synthesize, DNA polymerase I (swaps the

primer nucleotides for DNA nucleotides) will go through and
replace the RNA nucleotides from the primer with DNA
 nucleotides to make sure its DNA all the way through.
5. Lastly, because the polymerase can’t join the last nucleotide of
one fragment to the first nucleotide of another, a separate enzyme
called ligase has to go through and make sure everything is
connected
Ligase - Will make sure all the nucleotides are joined togeth

SUMMARY:

DNA REPLICATION
1. Helicase – unwinds the helix and separates the strands
2. Primase – anneals RNA primers
3. Polymerase III – copies each strand (once continuously on leading strand and Okazaki
fragment on lagging strand)
4. Polymerase I – replaces the primers with DNA nucleotides
5. Ligase – seals everything up

BOOK:
Step 1: an enzyme called helixase breaks the bond between the nitrogenous bases. The 2 strand
of DNA split.
Step 2: the bases attached to each strand then pair up with the free nucleotides found in the
cytoplasm.
Step 3: the complementary nucleotides are added to each strand by DNA polymerase to form new
strands. 2 new DNA molecules, each with a parent strand and each with a news strand are formed.
the DNA replication is known as semi-conservative replication, because one of the old strands is
conserved in each new molecule.