5.8 DNA Replication

Replication of DNA takes place during the S phase of cell cycle. During replication, each DNA molecule gives rise to two DNA strands, identical to each other as well as to the parent strand. Three hypotheses of DNA replication have been proposed. They are conservative replication, dispersive replication, and semi- conservative replication.

In conservative replication, the original double helix serves as a template. The original molecule is preserved intact and an entirely new double stranded molecule is synthesized. In dispersive replication, the original molecule is broken into fragments and each fragment serves as a template for the synthesis of double helical DNA = total number of base pairs × distance between two consecutive base pairs). If the length of E.