• The direction of growth of the leading strand is 5′→3′. The direction of growth of the lagging strand is 3′→5′.
• The formation of leading strand begins immediately at the beginning of replication. The formation of lagging strand begins a bit later than that of the leading strand.
• During the synthesis of leading strand, only one site of initiation is exposed in the template strand. During the synthesis of lagging strand, multiple sites of initiation are exposed in the template strand.