The result was consistent with the semiconservative replication hypothesis.

If left unrepaired, AP sites can lead to mutation during semiconservative replication.

Semiconservative replication would produce two copies that each contained one of the original strands and one new strand.

Semiconservative replication describes the mechanism by which DNA is replicated in all known cells.

Synthesis (S), in which the cell duplicates its DNA (via semiconservative replication).

Each strand of the original double-stranded DNA molecule serves as template for the production of the complementary strand, a process referred to as semiconservative replication.

DNA replication initially produces two catenated or linked circular DNA duplexes, each comprising one parental strand and one newly synthesised strand (by nature of semiconservative replication).

SDSA is unique in that D-loop translocation results in conservative rather than semiconservative replication, as the first extended strand is displaced from its template strand, leaving the homologous duplex intact.

In semiconservative replication, when the double stranded DNA helix is replicated each of the two new double-stranded DNA helices consisted of one strand from the original helix and one newly synthesized.

After the 1958 Meselson-Stahl experiment confirmed the semiconservative replication of DNA, it was clear to most biologists that nucleic acid sequence must somehow determine amino acid sequence in proteins; physicist George Gamow proposed that a fixed genetic code connected proteins and DNA.