Solved cryptogram
A gene is not read directly. The cell copies it into a working transcript and reads that.
Biology Facts, sourced to NCBI Bookshelf.
What it means
Transcription makes an RNA copy of one stretch of one strand, and that copy is what travels out to the machinery that builds proteins. Keeping the master out of harm's way is part of the point, and so is control: a cell can make many transcripts of a gene it needs a lot of, and none at all of one it does not. This is a large part of how identical cells become different tissues.
The claim comes from NCBI Bookshelf, and the page it comes from was read on 2026-08-27 to confirm it still says this.
This is not the kind of claim that goes out of date, which is why it was set as a puzzle rather than a fact with a shelf life.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 71 letters over 17 different ones, graded easy.
- SourceNCBI Bookshelf
- CollectionBiology Facts
- Difficultyeasy
- Length71 letters, 17 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- National Human Genome Research Instituteeasy, 77 letters
- NCBI Bookshelfmedium, 79 letters
- PLOS Biologymedium, 75 letters
- NIAMShard, 76 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
- Brain Research Bulletineasy, 74 letters
- NCBI Bookshelfeasy, 77 letters
- Royal Society of Chemistrymedium, 71 letters
- PNASmedium, 72 letters