Every cell in your body carries the same DNA,
yet a muscle cell, a neuron and a skin cell look and behave very differently.
The reason is that cells read only the genes they need, when they need them.
The first step in reading a gene is transcription: copying a section of DNA
into a molecule of RNA.
This short course explains how that copy is
made. Chapter 1 introduces the basic ideas and the molecules involved. Chapter
2 follows the process step by step, compares bacteria with cells that have a
nucleus, and shows how the RNA is finished before it is used. By the end, you
should be able to describe the three stages of transcription and transcribe a
DNA sequence into RNA yourself.
