Difference Between Template and Nontemplate DNA?

Question

I would really appreciate it if someone could provide a detailed description of the difference between template and nontemplate DNA strands?

Answer 1

RNA polymerase transcribes specific genes that are found in the DNA. The polymerase recognizes these genes because they have PROMOTERS.

A PROMOTER is an RNA polymerase binding site in the DNA which comes just before a gene. For T7 RNA polymerase, the DNA sequence that makes up the promoter is TATAGTGAGTCGTATTA in the template strand. The template strand of a double stranded DNA is the strand which is copied by the RNA polymerase into mRNA. The other strand of DNA which is not copied is called the non - template strand.

http://dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C08/C08Li...