Beginning within the nucleus, the first step leading to the synthesis of a polypeptide is beginning within the nucleus, the first step leading to the synthesis of a polypeptide is linking of nucleotides to form a polypeptide removal of introns from rna and the stitching together of exons transferring of information from dna to messenger rna translation of a dna nucleotide sequence into a sequence of amino acids translation of an rna nucleotide sequence into a sequence of amino acids