Transcription is the process of making mRNA from DNA. It involves RNA polymerase making an mRNA complementary copy of the DNA strand. Translation is the process of using the mRNA to produce a polypeptide by linking amino acids specified by the mRNA codons. During transcription, introns are removed from pre-mRNA and exons are joined to form mature mRNA. If the parent DNA strand is A A T G C A G T, the complementary mRNA strand will be U U A C G U C A.