Question

Dear sir ,
As we know that we have one origin of replication in prokaryotes., and we have many origin of replication in eukaryotes. Why is this so? In both the cases the whole DNA is getting replicated anyway , so why like that then?

Answer 1

Prokaryotic chromosomes have one origin of replication, while eukaryotic chromosomes have multiple origins. This is because eukaryotic chromosomes are much larger, so multiple origins are needed to replicate the entire chromosome in a short amount of time. Prokaryotic chromosomes are small, so they can get away with having only one origin.Eukaryotic cells store DNA in chromosomes enclosed within the membranes of a cell nucleus. Without multiple replication origins, replication would take much longer and slow down cell growth and that's why prokaryotic and eukaryotes have different origin of replication.