In this video, we're going to begin our introduction to DNA replication. It's important to keep in mind as we move forward in our course and continue to talk more about DNA replication that there is actually much more information known about prokaryotic DNA replication than about eukaryotic DNA replication. For that reason, as we move forward in our course, we're mainly going to focus on prokaryotic DNA replication. However, it is also important to remember that scientists believe that most of the DNA replication process is fundamentally similar in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Even though moving forward, we're mainly focusing on prokaryotic DNA replication, it's crucial to note that most of the process is fundamentally similar in both.
As we proceed in our course, we'll try to point out some of the key differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic DNA replication. In both types of replication, DNA replication occurs via a semi-conservative process, which we introduced in our last lesson video. Semi-conservative DNA replication suggests that the old parental strands in the original DNA molecule are going to separate from one another, and each will act as a template in the synthesis of new DNA strands that are complementary to the old parental strands. If we take a look at our image below, we're showing another image of semi-conservative DNA replication. Notice on the far left, we start with just one DNA molecule.
This is the original DNA molecule. By the end of this DNA replication process, we end up with two DNA molecules, one here and one here. The DNA strands in the old parental DNA molecule are going to separate from one another. You can see the separation beginning here. As these old original DNA strands separate from one another, they act as templates to build new DNA that is complementary to it.
You can see the new DNA here is this yellow strand being built using the old blue strand as a template. This process will continue, ultimately resulting in two DNA strands that are identical to each other and identical to the original since it's built via complementary base pairing. We'll be able to talk more about the mechanism of this semi-conservative DNA replication as we move forward in our course. We'll start off by introducing the DNA replication components. I'll see you all in our next lesson video to talk about that.