Question : What is the cause of discontinuous synthesis of DNA on one of the parental strands of DNA ? What happens to these short stretches of synthesised DNA ?

Question : What is the cause of discontinuous synthesis of DNA on one

1.	Question : What is the cause of discontinuous synthesis of DNA on one of the parental strands of DNA ? What happens to these short stretches of synthesised DNA ?
Answer» Solution :The DNA-dependent DNA polymerases catalyse POLYMERISATION only in ONE direction, that is `5.rarr3.`. This creates some additional complications at the REPLICATING fork. Consequently, on leading strand (the template with polarity `3.rarr5.`, the replication is CONTINUOUS, while on the lagging strain (the template with polarity `5.rarr3.`, it is discontinuous. The discontinuously synthesised fragments as OKAZAKI fragments are later joined by the enzyme DNA ligase.