AIIMS 2014 Botany Transcription — RNA Synthesis MCQ Question

RNA polymerase synthesizes the RNA strand in the 5′ → 3′ direction, adding nucleotides to the 3′-OH end of the growing chain.

To do this, it reads the template (antisense) DNA strand in the 3′ → 5′ direction, moving along the template from 3′ to 5′ while building the RNA from 5′ to 3′.

Therefore option (A) is correct:

• Direction of RNA synthesis: 5′ → 3′
• Direction of reading of the template DNA: 3′ → 5′