Creation of a cDNA library starts with mRNA instead of DNA. Messenger RNA carries encoded information from DNA to ribosomes for translation into protein. To create a cDNA library, these mRNA molecules are treated with the enzyme reverse transcriptase, which is used to make a DNA copy of an mRNA (i.e., cDNA). A cDNA library represents a sampling of the transcribed genes, but a genomic library includes untranscribed regions.
