The coding region of a gene is the portion of DNA or RNA that is transcribed into another RNA, such as a messenger RNA or a non-coding RNA (for instance a transfer RNA or a ribosomal RNA). A transcript can then be translated into proteins. This does not include gene regions such as a recognition site, initiator sequence, or termination sequence. It is often confused that 'CDS' in a GenBank entry is treated as the abbreviation for a coding sequence, but this term merely indicates open reading frame plus termination codon which corresponds to the coded protein sequence, clearly differs in definition from a coding region or sequence.

See also

• Open reading frame