Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Genet. 2018 Mar 19;34(6):448–465. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2018.02.005

Fig. 3. Small-scale instability due to replication slippage.

Fig. 3

Top panel: Secondary structures, here shown as hairpins, form within a repetitive region on either template strand during replication. As a result, the nascent strand skips a small portion of the template, leading to a contraction. Bottom panel: Secondary structures form on either nascent strand during replication, leading to a small expansion in the newly-generated DNA. Both panels: Lagging strand synthesis is discontinuous by nature, providing regular opportunities for slippage. Leading strand synthesis is generally continuous, but may occasionally slip while encountering DNA lesions or previously-formed secondary structures.