Question

In DNA/RNA transcription, is the leading strand also going to be the antisense strand? I am also confused about how Okazaki fragments are formed since the strand is not formed from 5' to 3', yet it looks like it is. Are you able to explain this with pictures please? I'm really lost.

Answer 1

Cosider a DNA double helix. it has two strands running anti-parallel to each other. one is marked from 5' to 3' and the other is marked 3'-5'.

5'-3' strand is called the sense strand and coding strand because it possess the same sequence as the mRNA. 3'-5' strand acts i called as anti-sense and acts as a template for the synthesis of the leading strand which takes up the 5'-3' direction and as mentioned above 5'-3' direction is the sense strand.

At the lagging strand, 5'-3' strand has to be replicated to make 3'-5' strand the anti-sense strand. At the unwound strand, the primase make a rna primer which is then extended at its 3' .