The work of Kiwako Sakabe, Reiji Okazaki and Tsuneko Okazaki provided experimental evidence supporting the hypothesis that DNA replication is a discontinuous process. Previously, it was commonly accepted that replication was continuous in both the 3' to 5' and 5' to 3' directions. 3' and 5' are specifically numbered carbons on the deoxyribose ring in nucleic acids, and refer to the orientation or directionality of a strand. In 1967, the Tsuneko Okazaki and Toru Ogawa suggested that there is no found mechanism that showed continuous replication in the 3' to 5' direction, only 5' to 3' using DNA polymerase, a replication enzyme. The team hypothesized that if discontinuous replication was used, short strands of DNA, synthesized at the replicating point, could be attached in the 5' to 3' direction to the older strand.