The template concept Watson and Crick's model for DNA structure suggested a template mechanism for DNA replication. It is essential that genetic material can be accurately copied and passed on with a complete set of instructions to the next generation. Before Watson and Crick's discovery, some geneticists argued that gene duplication is based on complementary surfaces. The semiconservative nature of DNA replication In a second paper, Watson and Crick proposed that genes are copied by specific pairing of complementary bases. Each strand is a template for assembling a complementary strand.
Enzymes link the nucleotides together at t heir sugar-phosphate groups.
Watson and Crick's model is a semiconservative model for DNA replication. When a double helix replicates, each of the two daughter molecules will have one old or conserved strand from th e parent molecule and one newly created strand. This model can be distinguished from a conservative model where the parent molecules remains intact and the new molecule is created de novo. In the late 1950's, provided the experimental evidence to support the semiconservative model of DNA replication. As E. coli cells reproduced, they incorporated the 15N into their nitrogenous bases.