Answer to Question #271503 in Molecular Biology for Adam

Question

Hello,

I would like to ask you one specific question - We need RNA polymerase to make a protein, but RNA polymerase is made up of proteins. So how does RNA polymerase, or its subunits, appear in the first place?

Answer 1

RNA polymerase is the main transcription enzyme. Transcription begins when RNA polymerase binds to a promoter sequence near the beginning of a gene (directly or through helper proteins). RNA polymerase uses one of the DNA strands (the template strand) as a template to make a new, complementary RNA molecule.