Transcription and Translation Practice Questions
22 free Transcription and Translation practice questions for the USMLE Step 1, each with the correct answer and a detailed explanation. Open any question below, or take the full set as an interactive quiz.
Questions
22 questions
All Transcription and Translation questions
- Q1. Which enzyme is primarily responsible for synthesizing pre-mRNA from DNA in eukaryotic cells?
- Q2. Which of the following correctly describes the order of major stages of transcription?
- Q3. During eukaryotic mRNA processing, what modification is added to the 5′ end of the nascent transcript soon after initiation?
- Q4. In prokaryotes, what feature of their mRNA allows expression of multiple proteins from a single transcript?
- Q5. What is the role of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase in translation?
- Q6. During translation in bacteria, which of the following factors brings the initiator tRNA to the ribosome P-site and hydrolyzes GTP to allow subunit joining?
- Q7. Which of the following statements is TRUE about eukaryotic pre-mRNA but FALSE for prokaryotic mRNA?
- Q8. Which RNA polymerase transcribes tRNA and 5S rRNA in eukaryotic cells?
- Q9. Why does the third base of a codon often allow “wobble” pairing, reducing the need for a unique tRNA for every codon?
- Q10. Which of these processes occur before export of a newly transcribed mRNA from the nucleus in eukaryotes?
- Q11. Which statement best explains why translation can begin on a bacterial mRNA even while it is still being transcribed?
- Q12. During eukaryotic transcription initiation, which component directly binds the TATA box in the promoter region to help recruit RNA polymerase II?
- Q13. What energy source is directly used by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase during tRNA charging?
- Q14. Which of the following is NOT a common feature of eukaryotic mRNA but present in bacterial mRNA?
- Q15. Which type of RNA is produced by RNA polymerase I in eukaryotic cells?
- Q16. During translation termination, what causes the release of the completed polypeptide from the ribosome?
- Q17. Which of the following best describes the template strand during transcription?
- Q18. Why are introns spliced out of eukaryotic pre-mRNA before translation?
- Q19. Which of the following is true about the genetic code used in translation?
- Q20. Which process is responsible for stabilizing mature eukaryotic mRNA and aiding its export from the nucleus?
- Q21. Which of the following accurately reflects a difference between eukaryotic and prokaryotic gene expression?
- Q22. What happens to the σ factor of bacterial RNA polymerase after initial transcription initiation?