Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 exam•Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Definition
The primary RNA transcript is an initial product resulting from transcription before any modifications occur. It's essentially an unedited copy of one strand of DNA sequence.
These are sequences within primary transcripts that remain after processing and become part of mature mRNA - akin to key scenes kept during movie editing.
Intron: These are sequences within primary transcripts removed during processing - comparable with unnecessary scenes cut out during movie editing.
This is the process by which introns are removed and exons joined together in primary transcripts - just like how film editors splice together different scenes to create a coherent movie.