Basis of differentiation | Eukaryotic transcription | Prokaryotic transcription |
Location | Eukaryotic transcription occurs in the cell nucleus | Prokaryotic transcription occurs in the cell cytoplasm |
Mechanism of transcription | A pre-mRNA molecule is formed and processed to yield a mature mRNA | mRNA is transcribed directly from the template DNA molecule |
Number of RNA polymerase subunits | RNA polymerase has 10-17 subunits | RNA polymerase has 5 subunits |
Occurance of transcription and translation | Transcription occurs in nucleus, and translation occurs outside the nucleus at different times | Prokaryotic transcription and translation occur simultaneously in cytoplasm |
Produced mRNA | Are monocistronic | Are polycistronic |
Post transcriptional modifications | Occurs during eukaryotic transcription | Do not occur |
Transcriptional factors | Requires transcriptional factors to bind RNA polymerase to promoter | Requires a sigma factor to bind to promoter |
RHO factor | Eukaryotes do not need RHO factors | Termination of transcription requires a RHO factor |