Semi-Conservative Replication of DNA

One molecule of DNA replicates to give two new molecules. Each new DNA molecule keeps one original (parent) strand and has one newly synthesised strand.

Stages:

• Parent DNA molecule (strand X and strand Y)
• Strands seperated by breaking the hydrogen bonds, X and Y now act as template strands
• New strands are made (X1 and Y1) by new nucleotides following specific complementary base pairing rules
• Two new DNA molecules made identical to each other and parent DNA

It is important that the two new daughter DNA molecules are identical to each other and indentical to the original parent DNA molecule…