BIOL 1107 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Central Dogma Of Molecular Biology, George Gamow, Exonuclease
Document Summary
When dna is copied, each strand of a dna double helix serves as the template for the synthesis of a complementary strand. Dna synthesis occurs during the s phase of interphase. 3 direction only and requires a large suite of specialized enzymes. The leading strand is synthesized continuously, but the lagging strand is synthesized as a series of fragments that are then linked together. Specialized enzymes repair damages to dna and fix mistakes in dna synthesis. If these repair enzymes are defective, the mutation rate increases. What are genes made of: while it was known and understood that chromosomes were comprised of dna and protein, early biologists did not know whether genes were comprised of dna or protein. The general consensus at the time supported the hypothesis that genes were comprised of proteins. This was because of the relative complexity and variability of proteins compared to dna which is comprised of only four different nucleotides.
