Which of the following is NOT a step of translation?

• A. Initiation
• B. Elongation
• C. Transcription
• D. Termination

Answer: (C)

Translational work is about how a ribosome reads the message and builds a protein. The stages involved are initiation (assembling the ribosome with the mRNA and the initiator tRNA), elongation (adding amino acids one by one as the ribosome moves along the mRNA), and termination (releasing the completed polypeptide when a stop codon is reached). Transcription, on the other hand, is the process of making an RNA copy from a DNA template, carried out by RNA polymerase. It happens before translation and serves to produce the mRNA that translation will read. Because transcription is a separate step that precedes translation, it is not a step of translation itself. In prokaryotes transcription and translation can be coupled, but transcription remains its own process rather than part of translation.