However, the DNA itself is not directly involved in protein synthesis. Instead, our DNA must first be transcribed into a molecule known as RNA and it's the RNA that is directly involved in the synthesis of our protein molecule. So in this lecture we're going to basically differentiate between RNA and DNA molecules and we're going to discuss the different types of RNA molecules that exist within our cell. Now, what exactly is RNA? RNA stands for ribonucleic acid and RNA is very similar to DNA in that it is also a polymer that consists of individual units known as nucleotides. And just like in DNA our nucleotides in RNA also consist of three important parts.