DNA Replication was proved to be a semiconservative process by Meselson and Stahl.
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Here is a short DNA replication animation.
DNA replication-is the process that makes two identical strands from one parental DNA segment.
This process starts in the genome, the unwinding of DNA at the origin and synthesis of new strands result in replication forks growing out of the genome. DNA polymerase synthesizes the new DNA by adding complementary nucleotides in codons to the template strand. AGG, etc. DNA is always synthesized in a 5' to 3' direction.The leading strand is the strand of DNA which is being synthesized in the same direction as the growing replication fork. A polymerase reads the leading strand template and adds complementary nucleotides to the leading strand on a continuing basis.
The lagging strand is the strand of DNA whose direction of synthesis is opposite to the direction of the growing replication fork.
On the lagging strand template, a primase reads the template DNA and begins synthesis of a short complementary RNA primer. A DNA polymerase extends the primed segments, forming Okazaki fragments. The RNA primers are then removed and replaced with DNA, and the fragments of DNA are joined together by DNA ligase.
