Tsuneko Okazaki

Tsuneko Okazaki is a Japanese molecular biologist who, with Reiji Okazaki, discovered Okazaki fragments, short DNA segments made during replication of the lagging strand.

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Reiji Okazaki: Reiji Okazaki was a Japanese molecular biologist who discovered Okazaki fragments with Tsuneko Okazaki. Her closest scientific collaborator, whose name is also attached to their discovery.
Okazaki fragment: An Okazaki fragment is a short DNA segment synthesized discontinuously on the lagging strand during DNA replication. These short products are the direct discovery associated with her work.
Semidiscontinuous DNA replication: Semidiscontinuous DNA replication produces one strand continuously and the other in separate fragments. Okazaki fragments supplied the evidence that replication has continuous and discontinuous modes.
Escherichia coli: Escherichia coli is a species of bacterium commonly used in genetics and molecular biology research. The Okazakis used bacterial systems to investigate newly synthesized DNA.
Arthur Kornberg: Arthur Kornberg was an American biochemist who discovered DNA polymerase I and helped establish enzymatic DNA synthesis. His work on DNA synthesis shaped the research context in which the Okazakis investigated replication.
Lagging strand: The lagging strand is the DNA strand synthesized discontinuously in short segments during replication. Okazaki fragments form on this strand because DNA polymerases synthesize only in one direction.
DNA replication fork: A DNA replication fork is the Y-shaped region where parental DNA is unwound and copied. The fragments explain how synthesis proceeds at the fork despite opposite template orientations.
DNA labeling: DNA labeling uses detectable isotopes or chemical tags to track DNA molecules and their synthesis. Labeling newly made DNA made the short replication products experimentally visible.
Matthew Meselson: Matthew Meselson is an American molecular biologist who co-developed a method for tracking DNA replication with Franklin Stahl. His replication experiments provided a framework for interpreting how newly made DNA strands form.
DNA replication: DNA replication is the process by which a cell copies its DNA before division. Her discovery clarified how replication proceeds on one of the two template strands.