1. What is meant by the term semiconservative replication? How does a leading strand differ from a lagging strand? List the ways the cell has of coping with errors in replication.

Semiconservative replication is one of the type of replication methods proposed to take place in the cell and has also been confirmed to be the type that actually takes place in the cell. Semiconservative replication involves the production of two copies (of which one is the parental strand which acts as template and the other is the newly synthesized strand) of the original DNA molecule. A leading strand is the newly synthesized strange running in the 5' to 3' direction, the template strand runs from the 3' to 5' direction while the lagging strand is the newly fragmentally synthesized strand oriented in such a way that its production runs in the 5' to 3' direction for each okazaki fragment. Its template strand runs in the 5' to 3' direction.

The cell copes with errors in replication either by performing the 3' to 5' exonuclease proofreading during replication or by utilizing the cell's DNA repair system.