Level of life
Gene
A basic unit of heredity: a stretch of DNA with instructions for a product such as a protein or a functional RNA.
How Transcription connects
Transcription uses
Transcription happens in
Structure
Nucleus
Stores most of the cell's DNA and controls which genes are used.
Transcription involves
Process
Base pairing
In DNA, A pairs with T and G pairs with C (RNA uses U instead of T). The matching lets each strand act as a template for the other.
Transcription is described by
Idea or model
Central dogma
Crick's principle that sequence information passes from nucleic acids to proteins and cannot pass from protein back to nucleic acid.
Transcription is involved in
Process
Gene expression
Using a gene's information to make its product. Cells switch genes on and off as conditions change.
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Your progress
Sources & further reading
The explanations on this page are our own summaries of these sources. Follow a link to read the original; if anything here disagrees with it, the original wins. How we choose and check sources.
Transcription (opens the original in a new tab)
National Human Genome Research Institute. Talking Glossary of Genomic and Genetic Terms. National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH.
ReferenceGovernment sourceEducational