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Questions and Answers
What is the primary difference between transcription and DNA replication?
What is the role of RNA polymerase in the transcription process?
What determines where RNA polymerase binds to DNA during transcription?
What is the result of a single gene being expressed through transcription?
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What is the function of the template strand in transcription?
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What terminates the transcription process?
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Study Notes
Transcription
- A single DNA molecule can contain hundreds or thousands of genes, but only those being expressed are copied into RNA at a given time.
- Transcription is the process of copying a base sequence from DNA to RNA.
- The product of transcription is an RNA molecule, unlike DNA replication which produces a duplicate of DNA.
- In transcription, segments of DNA serve as templates to produce complementary RNA molecules.
The Role of RNA Polymerase
- RNA polymerase is the enzyme responsible for carrying out transcription.
- RNA polymerase binds to DNA and separates the DNA strands.
- It uses one strand of DNA as a template to assemble nucleotides into a complementary strand of RNA.
- The ability to quickly copy a DNA sequence into RNA enables a single gene to produce hundreds or thousands of RNA molecules.
Initiation and Termination of Transcription
- RNA polymerase binds to specific regions of DNA called promoters, which have unique base sequences.
- Promoters are regions of DNA that can bind to RNA polymerase, indicating where to start transcription.
- Other regions of DNA cause transcription to stop when an RNA molecule is completed, indicating where to terminate transcription.
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Description
Learn about the process of transcription, where DNA base sequences are copied into RNA molecules, and how RNA polymerase plays a crucial role in this process. Understand the difference between transcription and DNA replication, and how genes are expressed through RNA synthesis.
