Answer:
D. Separate ecosystems can affect each other.
1. The right answer is in a discontinuous manner.
During DNA replication, the DNA polymerase synthesizes complementary DNA by mating on both strands, since the two strands are antiparallel, the replication is bidirectional, which means that one of the two strand is synthesized in a direction opposite to that of the direction of the enzyme, to do this, the DNA polymerase is obliged to synthesize DNA in the form of small fragments which are called Okazaki fragments, and its synthesized discontinuously (these fragments are not glued together by phosphodiester liasons, it is only after that another enzyme will intervene to ligate these fragments (DNA ligase).
Chemical (mutagens)
usually either mimic the structure of nucleotides and are inserted in DNA or either cause
chemical changes (such as alkylation) in nucleotides hence causing mismatching during replication.
Radiation, on the other hand, (due to its high energy) causes double-strand breaks in DNA causing an
increased likelihood of mutations during the repair of the DNA by cell
mechanisms.