Final answer:
Eukaryotic chromosomes, which are larger and more complex than prokaryotic ones, have multiple replicons allowing for multiple origins of replication, which enables the cell to replicate the DNA during the S phase efficiently despite a slower replication rate than in prokaryotes.
Step-by-step explanation:
Eukaryotes were found to have multiple replicons per chromosome, which are regions on the chromosome that act as starting points for DNA replication.
Unlike prokaryotes that have a single circular chromosome with one origin of replication, eukaryotic chromosomes are much larger and more complex. In humans, the genome contains approximately 3 billion base pairs per haploid set of chromosomes, and during DNA replication, which happens during the S phase of the cell cycle, about 6 billion base pairs are replicated. Eukaryotic cells, such as human cells, can have up to 100,000 origins of replication distributed across their genomes to facilitate this process. However, the replication occurs at a rate of approximately 100 nucleotides per second, which is significantly slower than the prokaryotic replication rate of about 1000 nucleotides per second.