quality:corruption, structural:scholar_edition, information:highlighting, linguistic:voice_change
Gene expression

In all organisms, two steps are required to read the information encoded in a gene's DNA and produce the protein it specifies. First, the gene's DNA is transcribed to messenger RNA (mRNA). Second, that mRNA is translated to protein. RNA-coding genes must still go through the first step, but are not translated into protein. The process of producing a biologically functional molecule of either RNA or protein is called gene expression, and the resulting molecule is called a gene product.