Glossary

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Lagging strand

One of the two newly synthesized strands during DNA replication. The lagging strand is made discontinuously and the short fragments are ligated.

Leader sequence

Also known as the 5'-UTR. The sequence at the 5' end of an mRNA that precedes the AUG initiation codon, and is not translated into protein.

Leading strand

The new DNA strand which is synthesized continuously during replication.

Ligase chain reaction (LCR)

A primer is synthesized in two fragments and annealed to the template. Ligase will ligate the two fragments if they match exactly to the template sequence. Subsequent PCR reactions will amplify only if the primer is ligated.

Linker

A double-stranded oligonucleotide is synthesized to have a restriction endonuclease recognition site, which is ligated to the ends of a DNA fragment for cloning.