Which process immediately follows the initiation phase of RNA synthesis?

The process that immediately follows the initiation phase of RNA synthesis is elongation. During the initiation phase, RNA polymerase binds to the DNA at a specific promoter region and begins to unwind the DNA strands, facilitating the start of transcription. Once initiation is successfully completed and the first few nucleotides of RNA have been synthesized, the elongation phase begins. In this stage, RNA polymerase moves along the DNA template strand, adding complementary RNA nucleotides one by one to the growing RNA transcript. This process continues until the RNA molecule reaches a termination signal, at which point synthesis will stop.

Understanding the sequence of these processes is crucial for grasping how gene expression is regulated and how RNA is produced from DNA. During elongation, the RNA strand becomes longer as nucleotides are added in the 5’ to 3’ direction, leading to the formation of a mature RNA molecule that can later undergo further processing before translation into a protein.