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Transcription

The picture on the right shows a cell. The darker spot is it's nucleus which contains the DNA. The membrane of the nucleus separate the DNA from the rest of the cell's contents because the external environment outside the nucleus may cause the genetic coding on DNA to change.

But you need to transfer the information DNA carries out, so that proteins can be made. So, a molecule called Messenger Ribonucleic Acid (mRNA) is used to get information from the DNA. 

The process of transferring information of DNA from inside the cell membrane to the outside is call Transcription. This involves 4 steps, Initiation, Elongation, Termination and Post-Transcription Processing.

Here's how the RNA molecule different from the DNA.
1. RNA has one more oxygen atom in the Ribose sugar than DNA.
2. RNA contains the base Uracil (U) instead of Thymine (T). 
During Complementary Base Pairing between a DNA and a RNA
Cytosine (C) and Guanine (G) are always paired.
Thymine (T) will pair with Adenine (A) and Adenine (A) will pair with Uracil (U).

Steps
1. Initiation

An enzyme called RNA polymerase binds to a strand of DNA molecule at the Initiation site.

2. Elongation

The RNA polymerase unwinds the DNA and add new nucleotides to the growing strand of mRNA molecule. Once RNA polymerase has processed a section of DNA, it rewinds the strand.

3. Termination

The newly formed transcripts fall away from DNA template and RNA polymerase.

4. Post Transcriptional Processing

The mRNA molecule is examined and useless information is removed and those that are relevant are kept.

 

 

 

 

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Genes and Traits

Table of Contents:
Overview of Structure of DNA
› Transcription
Translation
Examples of Human Characteristics

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