This book was created and published on StoryJumper™

©2014 StoryJumper, Inc.   All rights reserved.

Publish your own children's book: 

www.storyjumper.com

When I was a wee little cell, I 

asked my mommy how cells 

where made. Here's how the 

conversation went...

The DNA Helicase moves up 

the DNA, unzipping the two 

parental strands. The Helicase 

unwinds the parental double 

helix, creating two separate 

strands. This is like when you 

unzip your sweatshirt, you pull 

the zipper down and separate 

the two sides. 

Then, the DNA Polymerase sends 

signals to the cell for a matching 

nucleotide to pair with and bind to the 

parental strand of DNA. This is like 

when you are putting on your socks 

and you can't find the matching sock, 

so you yell to your mom to bring you 

the matching sock. 

Next, the DNA polymerase moves up 

the leading strand and creates the new 

continuous daughter strand as it moves 

from the 3' end to the 5' end. This is 

like when you zip up a zipper, the two 

parts come together to close the gap in 

your sweatshirt. 

On the lagging strand, Primase moves 

up the DNA strand and creates a short 

strands of RNA Primer. The RNA Primer 

then calls out to the DNA Polymerase 

for the corresponding bases. The RNA 

Primer joins with the corresponding 

bases to create Okazaki fragments. 

This process is done discontinuously. 

This is like when you zip a zipper that 

is broken. Part of the zipper gets zipped 

while other parts in between are left 

open.  

Finally, the RNA Primer is replaced with 

DNA. Then the DNA ligase joins the 

Okazaki fragments to the growing 

strand of daughter DNA. This is like 

when your dad fixes your broken 

zipper, so that there are no more gaps!

This DNA replication is called semi-

conservative, because it keeps one of 

the old strands of DNA to make the 

other strand during replication.This 

shows what the whole process of DNA 

replication looks like all together!

This is what the cell nucleus looks like 

after DNA replication! There are twice 

as many DNA strands now! 

You've previewed 27 of 41 pages.

To read more: