Terminator (genetics)

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See also Terminator Technology.

In genetics, a terminator, or transcription terminator is a section of genetic sequence that marks the end of a gene or operon on the DNA for transcription. The term terminator is confusingly used to indicate the stopcodon in prokaryotes as well as the terminator sequence in eukaryotes. The latter serves as a polyadenylation signal, resulting in the stop of transcription followed by the addition of the poly-A tail that directs the mRNA outside the nucleus.

Terminator sequences are distinct from termination codons that occur in the mRNA and are the stopping signal for translation, which may also be called nonsense codons.

A transcription terminator must also be distinguished from dye terminator sequencing, which is a method of sequencing DNA.

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