1 2 3 4 5 6 Replication fork · 1/6 Unzip the parent DNA and read it as two copies In DNA replication, each of the two strands of the parent DNA becomes a template. First see the replication fork, leading strand, lagging strand, and proofreading site as a single map.
Basics: OpenStax Biology 2e: Basics of DNA Replication .
Looking only at the process timeline, grasp the order: unzip, place, extend, join, fix.
Using the parent strands as templates, the whole picture of two new strands appears.
Replication Story Overview
ALL Overview Show the replication fork, leading, lagging, and proofreading site together UNZIP Unzip Helicase / Unzip PRIME Place a foothold Primase / Place a foothold 5->3 Elongate DNA polymerase / Extend from 5′ to 3′ OKA Join the fragments Polymerase + ligase / Join the fragments CHECK Proofread Proofreading polymerase / Fix it
See the whole flow as the parent DNA unzips and separates into two new DNA copies.
Discovery check In DNA replication, what role do the two strands of the parent DNA play?
Each becomes a template for a new strand Only one is discarded entirely They turn into membrane instead of enzymes
Answer the check to continue
Beginner · 24min
Where to go next Nearby adventures CRISPR: Aiming to Rewrite a Single Line Scan Cas9 along a DNA double helix, watch a guide RNA lock onto its target by base complementarity, check for the PAM, cut the double strand, and see mismatches switch specificity off. Neurons and Synapses: A Quarter-Second Journey Become one signal and travel the quarter second between a flash on the screen and the movement of your finger. Measure your own reaction time, then cross the threshold wall, leap along a myelinated axon, bridge a 20 nm gap and watch a spine grow, and see what the quarter second is made of. Protein Folding: The Sequence Builds the Shape Slide a chain of hydrophobic and polar beads from stretched to folded, watch the hydrophobic core bury itself into the low-energy native fold, and compare it against an exposed misfold. 
