Final answer:
The arrowheads representing the 3' ends of the strands imply that they are showing the direction of DNA replication, as new nucleotides are added to the 3' end during this process. They do not indicate the direction of transcription, translation, or RNA splicing.
Step-by-step explanation:
When a statement indicates that the arrowheads represent the 3' ends of the strands, it most directly implies that the arrowheads are showing the direction of DNA replication. DNA replication occurs from the 5' to 3' direction. The strand that is synthesized in small fragments (Okazaki fragments) is the lagging strand, while the continuously synthesized strand is the leading strand. Moreover, during transcription, RNA polymerase reads the DNA template strand in a 3' to 5' direction while synthesizing RNA in a 5' to 3' direction. This is because new nucleotides are added to the 3' end of the growing mRNA strand. The arrowheads do not directly indicate the direction of transcription since transcription is the process of synthesizing RNA from DNA, but it does relate to it in terms of process directionality. The arrowheads do not indicate the direction of translation, as translation involves the synthesis of protein from mRNA and does not have a direct relationship with the 3' and 5' ends of DNA or RNA strands. Lastly, the arrowheads are not related to the direction of RNA splicing, which is the process of modifying the pre-mRNA transcript by removing introns and joining exons together. Therefore, the correct implication here is that the arrowheads represent the direction of DNA replication.