Question

During bacterial transcription elongation, what happens to the two DNA strands as RNA polymerase moves forward?

विकल्प

• The strands are permanently separated and do not rejoin

• The two DNA strands re-anneal behind the polymerase as it moves forward

• Both strands remain permanently unwound behind the polymerase

• Only the template strand remains intact while the non-template strand is degraded

Answer 1

The two DNA strands re-anneal (re-form double helix) behind the polymerase as it moves forward during elongation. This occurs because the polymerase only temporarily unwinds the DNA helix to access the template strand. Once the RNA polymerase has moved past a region, the complementary base pairing between the DNA strands is restored, and the DNA returns to its double helical structure.