All multicellular organisms begin as a skin cell. within four or five days, that first cell multiplies into a ball-like structure of about 100 cells. what is this structure called? a. blastocyst b. blood c. placenta d. heart

step 1: initiation

initiation is the beginning of transcription. it occurs when the enzyme rna polymerase binds to a region of a gene called the promoter. this signals the dna to unwind so the enzyme can ‘‘read’’ the bases in one of the dna strands. the enzyme is now ready to make a strand of mrna with a complementary sequence of bases.

step 2: elongation

elongation is the addition of nucleotides to the mrna strand. rna polymerase reads the unwound dna strand and builds the mrna molecule, using complementary base pairs. there is a brief time during this process when the newly formed rna is bound to the unwound dna. during this process, an adenine (a) in the dna binds to an uracil (u) in the rna.

step 3: termination

termination is the ending of transcription, and occurs when rna polymerase crosses a stop (termination) sequence in the gene. the mrna strand is complete, and it detaches from dna.

stimulus is a change in the environment that causes an organism to react. the response is the reaction to the stimulus. some examples of stimuli for zebras are drought, to many predators, and bad feeding grounds such as dead grass or plants. zebras respond to stimuli just like all other living organisms