DNA polymerases need a pre-existing DNA or RNA chain end (a primer) onto which to add each nucleotide. For this reason, the lagging strand polymerase requires the action of a DNA primase enzyme ...

As DNA polymerase makes its way down the unwound ... whereas the other is called the lagging strand. The leading strand is synthesized continuously, as shown in Figure 5. In contrast, the lagging ...

Thus, at any given time the lagging-strand polymerase could be moving faster than the leading-strand polymerase and vice-versa. To prevent the accumulation of unreplicated gaps in the nascent DNA, ...