Final answer:
The discovery of Okazaki fragments provided evidence that DNA polymerase synthesizes DNA by creating leading and lagging strands, with the leading strand synthesized continuously and the lagging strand synthesized in Okazaki fragments.
Step-by-step explanation:
The experiments that led to the discovery of Okazaki fragments provided evidence for the idea that DNA polymerase is a directional enzyme, which synthesizes leading and lagging strands during replication. Specifically, this discovery supported the model of DNA replication where DNA polymerase reads the template strand in the 3' to 5' direction and adds nucleotides only in the 5' to 3' direction. The leading strand is synthesized continuously towards the replication fork, whereas the lagging strand is synthesized in short stretches of DNA called Okazaki fragments, each requiring a primer to start the synthesis, and these fragments are subsequently joined together to form a continuous strand.
Correct Question:
The experiments that led to the discovery of okazaki fragments gave evidence for which of the following ideas?
(a)dna polymerase is a directional enzyme that synthesizes leading and lagging strands during replication.
(b)dna is a polymer consisting of four monomers: adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine.
(c)dna is the genetic material.
(d)bacterial replication is fundamentally different from eukaryotic replication. replication occurs in the 3' to 5' direction.