Leading strand

Definition

The leading strand in DNA replication is the strand of new DNA which is synthesized continuously towards the replication fork. It is created by the enzyme DNA polymerase adding nucleotides in the direction of 5' to 3'.

Related terms

DNA Polymerase:

An enzyme that adds nucleotides to a growing DNA strand during replication.

Lagging strand:

The strand of new DNA whose synthesis occurs discontinuously away from the replication fork and requires short segments called Okazaki fragments to be synthesized.

Replication fork: The Y-shaped region where the double helix of DNA is unwound into two single strands for replication