5' end of gene
Scott Alexander Coonrod
sac5001 at tamuts.tamu.edu
Sun Mar 13 10:18:18 EST 1994
I have a simple question that no one to date has been able
answer adequately. When one talks about the 5' end of a gene
they are referring to the end at which the promoter and other
regulatory regions are located. It is the starting point for
transcription. When you look at any freshman biology book it
clearly shows that both DNA and RNa polymerases can only
bind to the 3' end and move in the 5' direction on the template.
It therefore makes a transcript in the 5' ---> 3' direction.
Why then do we not refer to the front of the gene as the
3'end because thats where transcription starts. Im sure
there must be a simple answer to this question but I havent
found it yet. Any help would be appreciated.
Regards, Scott C
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