Final answer:
The sliding clamp is not loaded just once on the leading strand; instead, it can dissociate and reassociate as needed during synthesis of both the leading and lagging strands, contradicting the false claim that it remains associated until replication is complete.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that the sliding clamp is loaded once on the leading strand and remains associated until replication is complete is false. While it's true that on the leading strand, DNA is synthesized continuously, the sliding clamp must be reloaded each time a new Okazaki fragment is initiated on the lagging strand. The leading strand can indeed be extended from one primer alone, but the sliding clamp does dissociate and reassociate during synthesis, especially during the replication of the lagging strand which is synthesized discontinuously in short stretches known as Okazaki fragments.
The sliding clamp is a ring-shaped protein that binds to the DNA and holds the DNA polymerase in place, thereby increasing the enzyme's processivity during DNA synthesis. The replication machinery needs to handle both strands efficiently. For the lagging strand, the sliding clamp associates with each new Okazaki fragment, while on the leading strand, it also dissociates and reassociates as needed.