DNA REPLICATION

 What is DNA?

- DNA (DeoxyriboNucleicAcid) is made up of a double helix of two complimentary strands.

- The main role of DNA in the cell is the long term storage. It is often compared to a blue print,
since it contains the instructions to construct other components of the cell, such as protein and
RNA (RiboNucleicAcid) molecules.

 DNA STRUCTURE

- DNA exists as a double stranded structure, with both strands coiled together to form the
characteristic double helix. Each single strand of DNA is a chain of four types of nucleotides.
Nucleotides in DNA contain a deoxyribose sugar, a phosphate and a nucleobase.

The four types of Nucleotide correspond to the four nucleobase: Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine
and Thymine, commonly abbreviated as A, C, G, and T.

 DNA REPLICATION

- In molecular biology, DNA replication is the biological process of producing two identical
replicas of DNA from one original DNA molecule. DNA replication occurs in all living organism
acting as the basis for biological inheritance. The cell possesses the distinctive property of
division, which make replication of DNA essential.

 Why replicate DNA?

- DNA is the gentic material that defines every cell. Before a cell duplicates and is divided into
new daughter cells through either mitosis or meiosis, biomolecules and organelles must be
copied to be distributed among the cells.

 Preperation for Replication:

Replication Fork Formation

Primer Binding

Elongation

Termination

 Replication Enzymes

- DNA replication would not occur without enzymes that catalyze various steps in the process.

 DNA helicase
 DNA primase
 DNA polymerase
 Topoisomerase or DNA gyrase
 Exonucleases
 DNA ligase