Editing DNA replication (section)

==== Lagging strand ====
The lagging strand is the strand of new DNA whose direction of synthesis is opposite to the direction of the growing replication fork. Because of its orientation, replication of the lagging strand is more complicated as compared to that of the leading strand.  As a consequence, the DNA polymerase on this  strand is seen to "lag behind" the other strand.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

The lagging strand is synthesized in short, separated segments. On the lagging strand ''template'', a [[primase]] "reads" the template DNA and initiates synthesis of a short complementary [[RNA]] primer. A DNA polymerase extends the primed segments, forming [[Okazaki fragment]]s. The RNA primers are then removed and replaced with DNA, and the fragments of DNA are joined by [[DNA ligase]].{{cn|date=November 2024}}