Why Lagging Strands are Behind: The unbalanced speed of DNA replication
For all living organisms, DNA replication is vital. It allows for duplication and subsequent production of essential proteins. Both the leading and lagging ends of the DNA replication process are created in different directions. The Okazaki fragments are short, while the leading strand can be synthesized continually. The lagging and leading strands have different methods of synthesizing DNA strands. This is why DNA replication takes slightly longer. The RNA primer is responsible for the slow DNA replication in the leading strand. To synthesize short Okazaki pieces, the RNA primer must be removed. This step is time-consuming and requires DNA nucleotides to replace it. The leading strand is easily synthesized by hand, but the lagging one requires extra steps, which takes longer. Additionally, the lagging must also be made in reverse, which can lead to a slower replication rate (Rao 2020). Cont….