To carry out these functions, DNA sequences must be converted into messages that can be used to produce proteins, which are the complex molecules that do most of the work in our bodies. Each DNA sequence that contains instructions to make a protein is known as a gene.The DNA housed in the nucleus is too large to move through the nuclear membrane, so it must be copied by the smaller, single-stranded RNA (transcription), which moves out of the nucleus to ribosomes located in the cytoplasm and rough endoplasmic reticulum to direct the assembly of protein (translation).
