Question

Eukaryotes differ from prokaryotes in the mechanism of DNA replication due to

• A. Same enzyme are used for synthesis of lagging and leading strands in prokaryote and eukaryote
• B. Discontinuous rather than semi discontinuous replication
• C. Use of DNA primers rather than RNA primers
• D. Unidirectional rather than bidirectional replication

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

Discontinuous rather than semi discontinuous replication

Eukaryotes differ from prokaryotes in the mechanism of DNA replication because prokaryotic DNA has only one point of origin while the eukaryotes have multiple points of origin.

In eukaryotes, the DNA replication is discontinuous. The DNA is synthesized by DNA polymerase in the 5'-3' direction on leading strand by DNA polymerase. When the DNA polymerase works in the opposite direction on lagging strand it synthesizes discontinuous short DNA segments known as Okazaki in 3'-5' direction.

In prokaryotes, the DNA replication is semi discontinuous. In adenovirus, both strands can be copied in 5' to 3' direction simultaneously without any need for discontinuous replication so it is considered as semi discontinuous replication.

So, the correct answer is option B.