The overall reaction rate for the bacterial RNA polymerase can be as fast as 40–50 nucleotides/second at 37°C for most transcripts; this is about the same as the rate of translation (15 amino acids/sec), but much slower than the rate of DNA replication (800 bp/sec).
#Unit 3. Fundamental Processes#Sigma factor, Initiation and Elongation of bacterial transcription#Part B Pointers
