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DNA replication seems complicated at first but as you get into it’s very simple and easy to understand. This is where Chargaff's rule plays an important role.
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The process of replication first starts when an enzyme breaks the very weak chemical bond between the two polynucleotide chains. The DNA strand is broken exactly in the middle separating the base pairs. The newly separated polynucleotide chains now become templates to form two new strands of DNA.
In the cell’s nucleus, there contains many extra nucleotides. The bases will first bond with the bases that are on the template, which, according to Chargaff's rule, will match up with only another base with the equal amount. For example: Say that on the template there was a G base, so an extra C base will bond with it. After this the extra phosphate and sugar will join together to form the other polynucleotide chain. This will happen with both templates. |
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This process is repeated thousands of times to create two new DNA molecules that are exactly like the original DNA molecule, this way when mitosis occurs, the daughter cells will receive the exact same DNA molecules.
When something goes wrong with the DNA replication, mutations occur. Mutation errors will cause the proteins in DNA to have the wrong sequence of amino acids, like when a base is changed or when a base is deleted.
