HESI A2 SCIENCE Practice Test

The process that converts DNA to RNA is known as transcription. During transcription, the enzyme RNA polymerase binds to a specific region of the DNA and synthesizes a single strand of RNA using one of the DNA strands as a template. This process involves the reading of the DNA sequence and the complementary pairing of RNA nucleotides to create an RNA copy of the gene. This RNA can then be processed and eventually translated into a protein.

Transcription is essential for gene expression, allowing the genetic information stored in DNA to be utilized within the cell. The RNA produced can be messenger RNA (mRNA), which carries the code for proteins, or other types of RNA like transfer RNA (tRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA), which play roles in protein synthesis.

Replication refers to the process of making an identical copy of DNA, while translation is the process by which the RNA sequence is decoded to synthesize proteins. Translocation typically refers to the movement of a segment of DNA or RNA from one location to another and does not describe the conversion of DNA into RNA.