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Why is DNA replicated 5' to 3'?

Allen Gathman

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  • Recommended by 1 person, in Biology Stack Exchange.
  • Presented by Allen Gathman, as the video describes them

Assumes interest and some biology. Education, not medical advice.

200K views16 years ago1 recommendation

How the body worksGenetics and genomicsCells and molecules

Allen Gathman explains the chemical reaction mechanism of DNA replication and why synthesis only proceeds from the 5' to 3' direction.

Discussion of the reaction mechanism for DNA (and RNA) synthesis, and why it causes synthesis to proceed only in the 5' to 3' direction. Images from this video are CC licensed and available at flickr.com/photos/agathman/sets/72157617475156596 . If you want details of the whole process of DNA replication in E. coli, images are at flickr.com/photos/agathman/tags/replication/

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1 person recommends this

What people say. Recommended as a great explanation of the reaction mechanism of DNA replication.

Gergana Vandovain Biology Stack Exchange • Recommends

On “Why is DNA replication performed in the 5' to 3' direction?”

Prof. Allen Gathman has a great 10-minutes link to this video on Youtube, explaining the reaction of adding nucleotide in the 5' to 3' direction, and why it doesn't work the other way. Briefly, the energy for the formation of the phosphodiester bond comes from the dNTP, which has to be added. dNTP is a nucleotide which has two additional phosphates attached to its 5' end. In order to join the 3'OH group with the phosphate of the next nucleotide, one oxygen has to be removed from this phosphate group. This oxygen is also attached to two extra phosphates, which are also attached to a Mg++. Mg++ pulls up the electrons of the oxygen, which weakens this bond and the so called nucleophilic attack of the o…
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