Direction of transcription

[abiran]

Im getting really confused What do you mean by the RNA pioymerase 'reads" the template strand in 5'-3' strand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Simpl ... ation1.svg

in this picture isnt the strand moving in 3'to5' direction?so what do you mean by reading in 5" to 3" direction?
like i don tget the expression "READ'.
Thank you
PLzz help
thnx agian

[JackBean]

Where did you get it? That is the direction of new strand synthesis

[kolean]

The RNA polymerase "transverses" the template/noncoding strand in the 3' - 5' direction, but it "reads" the template/noncoding strand in the 5' - 3' direction (forward looking at it). Like the RNA polymerase is 'facing' towards the 5' end and the 3' end is behind you as it 'reads' the DNA. This will then produce the 5' - 3' mRNA, which will be the same as the coding template (hence the name) that is in the 5' - 3' direction.

[abiran]

Thank you so much that made things a lot cleareer..

[tempust]

It actually moves in the 5' -> 3' direction. The new complementary strand is synthesized in the 3' -> 5' direction.
Don't worry, I was ridiculously confused about it at first. You should get a fellow student or your teacher to draw out on the board the whole process, labeling everything. I don''t know, it helped for me.