Structure and Replication if DNA U1

made up of nucleotides nucleotides are made up of a phosphate group, deoxyribose sugar and an organic base strong chemical bonds form between the deoxyribose sugar of one nucleotide and the phosphate group of the next (sugar-phosphate backbone) complementary strands of DNA are antiparallel 3’ - deoxyribose sugar 5’ - phosphate group

DNA polymerase double helix unwinds weak hydrogen bonds break creating 2 template strands strands become stabilised and expose bases at Y shaped replication fork one strand is leading (3’ end), the other lagging (5’ end) leading strand is continuous, primer is bonded to the 3’ end allowing DNA polymerase to add free DNA nucleotides, these align complementary and become bound to the 3’ end of the primer

heated to 92-98°C to break hydrogen bonds cooled to 50-65°C to enable primers to attach heated to 70-80°C to allow heat tolerant DNA polymerase to work within it’s optimum temperature to add free DNA nucleotides