THE DNA

REPLICATION FORK
ANNABELLE DARCY
20371906
 The origin of replication & replication bubble
• Replication starts at origins of
replication.
• This region of DNA opens up.
• Helix is unwound by the
helicase.
• Replication bubbles
- formed at these origins of
replication.
- Made of two replication forks.
 Topoisomerase & Single-
strand DNA binding protein
• Some unwinding of the double helix
causes supercoiling.
• The enzyme topoisomerases stops the
supercoiling effect.
• The separated strands of the parental
DNA are bound by single-strand DNA
binding protein.
• This protein stops double helix from
reforming.
 Leading & Lagging
The Leading strand:
• The primer binds to the strands
leading strand in the 5’ to
3’ direction.
• DNA polymerase generates new complementary
nucleotide bases, which are made into new strands
of DNA by elongation. This is continuous
replication.
The Lagging strand:
• It begins its replication process by binding to
multiple primers, at differing locations along the
strand.
• Short sections of DNA are bonded to the lagging
strand between primers. This is discontinuous
replication.
Bidirectional DNA replication
Butler, G. 2022. Lecture 3: DNA replication, Lecture notes, Molecular Genetics
and Biotechnology BMOL20090, University College Dublin, Delivered 16
September 2022.

•The replication fork begins to open

up.
•Laying down RNA primers and
extending the sequence must be
repeated as the starting point of the
lagging strand needs to be copied.
•This process is repeated as the fork
opens further.
•The RNA primers are then removed
and replaced with DNA nucleotides.
Citations:

1. Butler, G. 2022. Lecture 3: DNA replication, Lecture notes, Molecular

Genetics and Biotechnology BMOL20090, University College Dublin,
Delivered 16 September 2022.

2. Ahern, K., Rajagopal, I., Tan, T., 2018. Biochemistry: Free for All. NC -
Creative Commons.

3. self-drawn diagrams.