Leading & Lagging strand DNA
synthesis
Synthesis on both strands proceeds from Primers oriented in the 5'3'
direction. On the Leading Strand
(left), this is directed towards the replication fork and proceeds continuously. Synthesis on the Lagging Strand (right) is directed away from the fork, and proceeds discontinuously so as to produce Okazaki Fragments, which are
subsequently joined by DNA ligase.
Figure © 2000 by
Griffiths
et
al. ; All text
material © 2007 by Steven M. Carr