Question

What are Okazaki fragments?

Answer 1

Okazaki fragments:

1. These are short DNA segments generated as a result of discontinuous replication of the lagging strand.
2. During cell division, the DNA polymerase enzyme synthesizes complementary strands based on the DNA present.
3. The leading strand of the DNA (5' to 3') is synthesized in a continuous manner while the lagging strand (3' to 5') is synthesized discontinuously and generates short sequences with breaks.
4. Once the replication process is done, DNA polymerase I remove RNA primers from the Okazaki fragments and joins them to produce a continuous strand.
5. Reiji Okazaki and Tuneko Okazaki identified the formation of such fragments in E.coli.