During DNA replication, when a DNA strand is split into two, what are those new strands called?

Question

Are they RNA strands, or DNA single strands, or what?

Answer 1

Folks, "daughter" DNA is not the name for the origianl double stranded DNA that was divided into two single stranded DNA. The daughter strands are the new DNA strands that are synthesized on the old DNA templates (hence the name daughter, like offspring).

The original DNA strands are called the leading and lagging template (or occasionally "parental") strands.

Answer 2

They are still DNA strands, the whole DNA molecule is not split in two, a portion of the DNA unravels at a section called the replication fork. One strand is called the leading strand, and one is called the lagging strand. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Both your answers (RNA and DNA) are right. It depends on which strand, actually. Each of the DNA double strands are oriented in opposite directions, so when they split during replication, one conforms to the reading style of the enzyme that copies the DNA (they call this the "leading" strand). The other strand, oriented backwards relative to the reading style of the enzyme, is a bit tricky and has to be copied in segments. This is because the enzyme can only "read" in one direction. This "lagging" strand has to be primed with RNA segments they call the Okasaki fragments. Eventually the Okasaki fragments are replaced by DNA strands (aka daughter strands). Many enzymes have to come into the picture to do this.

Answer 4

The incomplete DNA molecules resulting from the split are just that: incomplete DNA molecules. However, DNA doesn't just unzip all at once into two sides. While enzymes are separating parts of the DNA molecule, other enzymes are filling in the missing nucleotides. So once the process starts, it's beginning, it's happening, and it's finally done.

The two resulting DNA molecules are just called DNA. I suppose you could refer to them as the daughter DNA molecules, just as we refer to daughter cells.

Answer 5

They are called daughter strands, and they are double-stranded DNA.

Answer 6

They are ssDNA (single strand DNA).