Transcription of several genes in bacteria are often grouped together into a single RNA molecule. So that's what we're seeing here, one RNA molecule, several genes. These genes that are transcribed together from a single promoter that have a single terminator, see we have here gene 1, gene 2, and gene 3, constitute what is known as an operon.
We're going to be talking about control of operons and how this actually works a little bit later in an upcoming lecture. As this is transcribed, this produces what is known as polycistronic messenger RNA. So poly meaning many, cistron referring to these genes, messenger RNA. This is compared to say, for example, monocistronic, which means it's only copying one gene. Now we'll talk about these commonly as well for viruses.
It's a little bit different in viruses, but what this means is this particular messenger RNA molecule can now be translated into one, two, and three individual proteins.