All organisms Aerobic or
Anaerobic
is rearranged
by
could
be
used as a reactant in
rearranges
molecules to
release
uses light energy
to make

the cladogram shown here shows similarities and differences among several classes of vertebrates. anatomically, the four have limb structure as their common ancestor. we might separate the mammals from the other three classes because they a) divergent; do not lay eggs b) identical; are warm-blooded c) varied; a four chambered heart d) homologous; have mammary glands

step 1: initiation

initiation is the beginning of transcription. it occurs when the enzyme rna polymerase binds to a region of a gene called the promoter. this signals the dna to unwind so the enzyme can ‘‘read’’ the bases in one of the dna strands. the enzyme is now ready to make a strand of mrna with a complementary sequence of bases.

step 2: elongation

elongation is the addition of nucleotides to the mrna strand. rna polymerase reads the unwound dna strand and builds the mrna molecule, using complementary base pairs. there is a brief time during this process when the newly formed rna is bound to the unwound dna. during this process, an adenine (a) in the dna binds to an uracil (u) in the rna.

step 3: termination

termination is the ending of transcription, and occurs when rna polymerase crosses a stop (termination) sequence in the gene. the mrna strand is complete, and it detaches from dna.