Abstract
The chemical approaches to the study of systems for template biosynthesis are examined. The general problems of template biosynthesis solved with the aid of these approaches and the principal results obtained as regards transcription are described. Attention is concentrated on the results obtained in the study of the interaction of RNA polymerase and its subunits with DNA and the RNA product. The approaches to the study of the active centre in RNA polymerases by the affinity modification method as well as the interaction of eukaryotic transcription factors with DNA are described. The bibliography includes 64 references.