What term describes the process by which messenger RNA is synthesized from a DNA template?

The process of synthesizing messenger RNA from a DNA template is known as transcription. During transcription, the DNA strands unwind, and one of the strands serves as a template for creating a complementary RNA strand. This process occurs in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells and is essential for the production of proteins, as it converts the genetic information stored in DNA into a form that can be used to build proteins—specifically, messenger RNA (mRNA). The mRNA then exits the nucleus and travels to the ribosomes, where the next step, translation, occurs.

Transcription involves several key steps: initiation, where RNA polymerase binds to the promoter region of the gene; elongation, where RNA polymerase synthesizes the mRNA strand by adding ribonucleotides that are complementary to the DNA template; and termination, when the RNA polymerase reaches a termination signal, releasing the newly formed mRNA molecule.