Genetic information is transferred from parent to progeny organisms by a faithful replication of the parental DNA molecules. Usually the information resides in one or more double-stranded DNA molecules.
Replication of double-stranded DNA is a complicated process that is not completely understood. This complexity results in part from the following facts:
1) A supply of energy is required to unwind the helix;
2) The single strands resulting from the unwinding tend to form intra-strand base pairs;
3) A single enzyme can catalyze only a limited number of physiological and chemical reactions and many reactions are needed in replication;
4) Several safe guards have evolved that are designed both to prevent replication errors and to eliminate the rate errors that do occur; and
5) Both circularity and the enormous size of DNA molecules impose genomic constraints on the replicative system, and how these fits into the system have to be understood.
Synopsis:
DNA Replication-Nucleic acids act as a genetic material
Mechanism of DNA Replication
a) Initiation
b) Elongation
c) Termination
Enzymes involved in DNA Replication
- DNA Replication: Single-strand binding protein prevents reannealing
- DNA Replication: Helicase unwinds DNA
- DNA Replication: DNA Primase
- DNA Replication: DNA Ligase, that seals new base pairing
- DNA Replication: DNA Polymerases in Eukaryotes