Replication

Name:
Replication
Detailed information:
(1) Making a reverse image of a surface by means of an impression on or in a receptive material; usually applied to microscopic techniques for obtaining plastic replicas of observed objects. (2) In biochemistry, the term refers to reproduction of the DNA molecule, which is composed of two interlocking chains of nucleotides (the double helix structure elucidated by Watson and Crick in 1953). It reproduces itself by forming two identical daughter molecules, each of which receives one of the two chains of the original molecule, the other in each case being synthesized from nucleic acids by enzymes (DNA polymerases). In the oversimplified drawing below the solid lines are the strands of the original molecule, and the broken lines are the synthesized strands:The chemical mechanisms in replication are more complex than previously thought; 12–15 proteins are involved as well as several enzymes. See Deoxyribonucleic Acid; Genetic Code.