Biology Stack Exchange
Biology Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [transcription]

The process that produces a complementary strand of RNA from a section of DNA or (rarely) other RNA.

The process that produces a complementary strand of RNA from a section of DNA or (rarely) other RNA.

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How does RNA transcription determine which half of the DNA to use?

I feel that I might have a complete misunderstanding here. If DNA has two strands, how does the machinery of RNA transcription determine which one to transcribe?
CognisMantis
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Are single-celled organisms capable of learning?

I've read that the amoeba is capable of learning. Since these protists have no nervous system, it's safe to assume that even highly simplified learning mechanisms of the Aplysia are miles off in the evolutionary distance. How does this species…
jonsca
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Why is thymine not incorporated into mRNA?

I am aware that in transcription uracil bonds to adenine and not thymine. But what is it that actually prevents thymine from bonding to adenine in transcription, that is not present in replication?
Benjamin Rogers-Newsome
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Can methylation from DNA get copied to RNA during transcription?

Methylation on gene-body and 3'UTRs if copied to mRNA can potentially regulate post-transcription modifications or expression regulation. But I'm not sure if they are maintained after transcription or if they get all de-novo methylation.
Garima Kushwaha
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Does RNA polymerase move around DNA or does DNA rotate beneath the polymerase?

I'm thinking of the human genome specifically, but more general answers are welcome. As RNA polymerase moves along the DNA helix it follows a single strand. The two DNA strands are unwound locally by a helicase enzyme. However, after some…
Dave Gerrard
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How do CpG islands remain unmethylated?

In most of the genome CpG sites are pretty much always methylated, but CpG islands are instead often unmethylated. This has been linked to the fact that they often are associated to transcripted genes. What are the current theories on the…
nico
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Why aren't 'exons' named 'introns'?

Why are introns called 'introns' when they are the actual ones who are getting spliced out from the pre-mRNA. Shouldn't exons be named introns as they are the ones that are 'in' and are not 'exiting'? On what criteria were they named like this?
Jewel Johnson
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How does the stem-loop cause intrinsic transcription termination?

In this animation, towards the end (about three quarters) the process of transcription termination is shown. It states that the transcribed RNA forms a hairpin loop (or stem-loop), which halts the transcription process. My question is, why does it…
arik-so
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Why and how is DNA synthesis so much faster then RNA synthesis in bacteria?

DNA synthesis in E. coli is 20x faster than RNA synthesis at 1000nt/s vs 50nt/s. (Mirkin'05) I find that perplexing since DNA polymerization has better proofreading than the RNA variety, which requires extra time as you need to backtrack, excise,…
SeanJ
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Modularity of transcription factors

I attended a seminar about neurogenesis that presented results for PAX6 as an important TF that contains 3 domains with very distinct patterns of downstream expression. The speaker ended up saying that PAX6 can be considered as 3 TFs in one protein,…
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determining genome-wide exogenous binding of pathogens to host genome?

I've read this paper where they specifically modify a region in the rice genome to ablate the binding site of a pathogen, Xanthomonas oryzae, and disrupt the hijacking of a gene network in the rice genome to the advantage of the pathogen. It's an…
yahoo301503
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When does histone synthesis occur in relation to DNA replication?

Do histones have to be synthesized before DNA is replicated to allow the DNA to coil around histones?
Laura kirkpatrick
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On which strand does the promoter sit?

My book keeps giving different indicators as to whether the promoters are on the coding or template strand. It says the -35 region in prokaryotes must be on the coding strand. It also mentions, that the -10 and -35 regions are binding sites for RNA…
Brian
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bi-directional transcription experiment

We suspect a bi-directional transcription event is happening at a locus in our organism where two genes are directly adjacent to each other. The annotation data is not well established. The intergenic distance is probably less than 200 base…
Damian Kao
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How do chromosome pairs get "paired up" for protein synthesis?

If my understanding is correct, during interphase a normal human cell will have 46 chromosomes scattered about in the cell nucleus. These chromosomes can be thought of as pairs: there are two copies of "chromosome 1", one from mom and one from dad.…
theQman
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