the.com/transcription
DNA whispers, RNA writes it down — biology's original copy-paste, minus Ctrl+Z.
means The process of copying a stretch of DNA into a matching strand of RNA, the first step in turning genetic instructions into action.
from From Latin transcribere — 'trans' (across) plus 'scribere' (to write) — literally 'to write over' or 'copy out.' Scribes used the word for copying manuscripts by hand long before biologists borrowed it in the 20th century to describe cells copying genetic text from DNA into RNA — same idea, vastly smaller pen.
- key enzyme
- RNA polymerase, the diligent scribe with no eraser
- error rate
- worse than DNA replication, but nobody proofreads RNA
- speed
- about 50 nucleotides per second in humans
- editing step
- introns get spliced out before the memo ships