The lagging strand is characterized by a series of short segments of DNA (Okazaki fragments) that will be joined together to form a finished lagging strand. The experiments that led to the discovery of Okazaki fragments gave evidence for which idea?

Question

Biology

Essence Brandt

5 November, 02:17

The lagging strand is characterized by a series of short segments of DNA (Okazaki fragments) that will be joined together to form a finished lagging strand. The experiments that led to the discovery of Okazaki fragments gave evidence for which idea?

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Answers (1)

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Desiree Lloyd · Answer 1

The experiments that led to the discovery of Okazaki fragments gave evidence for the idea that the DNA polymerase is unidirectional and is responsible for the synthesis of the lagging and the leading strand of DNA.

Explanation:

The DNA polymerase is an enzyme that reads the two chains of DNA and creates complementary chains of the DNA during DNA replication. As this enzyme only reads from 5' to 3' and the DNA's chains are one from 5'-3' and the other from 3'-5', the DNA polymerase reads the 5'-3' chains in a continuous way creating the leading strand while when it reads the strand that is from 3' to 5' it creates short segments that later come together to form the lagging strand.