Question

When scientists refer to the DNA to RNA to proteins pathway, the RNA part really represents three different types of RNA: messenger RNA (mRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). How is each type of RNA important to protein production?

Answer 1

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is the RNA that carries information from DNA to the ribosome, the sites of protein synthesis (translation) in the cell. The coding sequence of the mRNA determines the amino acid sequence in the protein that is produced. Many RNAs do not code for protein. However, about 97% of the transcriptional output is non-protein-coding in eukaryotes.