What is transcription in genetics?
Transcription transfers the genetic code from a molecule of DNA to an intermediary molecule called ribonucleic acid (RNA). The basic nucleotide structure of RNA resembles that of DNA, but the two compounds have three critical differences. First, the structure of RNA incorporates the sugar ribose rather than deoxyribose, the sugar in DNA. Second, RNA uses the base uracil (U) instead of thymine (T). In RNA uracil binds with adenine just as thymine does in DNA. Third, RNA usually exists as a single strand, unlike the double-helix structure that normally characterizes DNA. Transcription involves the production of a special kind of RNA known as messenger RNA (mRNA). The process begins when the two strands of a DNA molecule separate, a task directed by the enzyme RNA polymerase. After the double helix splits apart, one of the strands serves as a template, or pattern, for the formation of a complementary mRNA molecule. Free-floating individual bases within the cell bind to the bases on the DN
