A DNA transcription unit encoding for a protein may contain both a coding sequence, which will be translated into the protein, and regulatory sequences, which direct and regulate the synthesis of that protein. The regulatory sequence before (upstream from) the coding sequence is called the five prime untranslated regions (5UTR); the sequence after (downstream from) the coding sequence is called the three prime untranslated regions (3UTR).
As opposed to DNA replication, transcription results in an RNA complement that includes the nucleotide uracil (U) in all instances where thymine (T) would have occurred in a DNA complement.
Only one of the two DNA strands serves as a template for transcription. The antisense strand of DNA is read by RNA polymerase from the 3 end to the 5 end during transcription (3 → 5). The complementary RNA is created in the opposite direction, in the 5 → 3 direction, matching the sequence of the sense strand except switching uracil for thymine. This directionality is because RNA polymerase can only add nucleotides to the 3 end of the growing mRNA chain. This use of only the 3 → 5' DNA strand eliminates the need for the Okazaki fragments that are seen in DNA replication. This also removes the need for an RNA primer to initiate RNA synthesis, as is the case in DNA replication.
The non-template (sense) strand of DNA is called the coding strand, because its sequence is the same as the newly created RNA transcript (except for the substitution of uracil for thymine). This is the strand that is used by convention when presenting a DNA sequence.
Transcription has some proofreading mechanisms, but they are fewer and less effective than the controls for copying DNA. As a result, transcription has a lower copying fidelity than DNA replication.