RNA polymerase (RNAP) plays a key role in the transcription process in eukaryotic cells. It is the main enzyme responsible for copying a DNA sequence into an RNA sequence. RNA polymerase along with transcription factors form a transcription pre-initiation complex (PIC) by binding to the promoter site on a DNA strand. The promoter site is a region located upstream at the 5’ end of a DNA strand. This binding of the RNAP and transcription factors to the promoter site on DNA initiates the transcription process.
Unlike prokaryotic cells where a single RNA polymerase is responsible for transcription, eukaryotic cells have three types of RNA polymerases. Each of these RNAPs plays a different role in gene expression.