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Rna polymerase (RNAP or RNApol) is an enzyme that is responsible for making rna from a dna template. In all cells RNAP is needed for constructing rna chains from a dna template, a process termed transcription. In scientific terms, RNAP is a nucleotidyl transferase that polymerizes ribonucleotides at the 3' end of an rna transcript. Rna polymerase enzymes are essential and are found in all organisms, cells, and many viruses.