Polyadenylation
![Chemical structure of RNA. The sequence of bases differs between RNA molecules.](/Images/godic/202502/03/RNA_chemical_structure_adenine3921.JPG")
![Results of using different polyadenylation sites on the same gene](/Images/godic/202502/03/Alternative_polyadenylation.svg3921.png")
![Polyadenylation in bacteria helps polynucleotide phosphorylase degrade past secondary structure](/Images/godic/202502/03/Bacterial_PNPase_and_polyadenylation.svg3921.png")
Polyadenylation is the addition of a poly(A) tail to a messenger RNA. The poly(A) tail consists of multiple adenosine monophosphates; in other words, it is a stretch of RNA that has only adenine bases. In eukaryotes, polyadenylation is part of the process that produces mature messenger RNA (mRNA) for translation. It, therefore, forms part of the larger process of gene expression.