Protein Synthesis

• Proteins are created in ribosomes
• Transcription Process:

  • DNA Helicase unzips helix to act as template strands by breaking hydrogen bonds between bases
  • Free mRNA nucleotides align complementary to template strand
  • RNA Polymerase catalyses phosphodiester bonds between free nucleotides
  • mRNA is modified and exits via nuclear pores
  • Pre-mRNA still contains introns, introns are spliced out by a splicesome
• Translation Process:

  • mRNA attaches to ribosome at the start codon
  • tRNA complementary anti-codons align opposite mRNA being held by the ribosome
  • Ribosome moves along strand pairing them, peptidyl transferase forms peptide bonds between the amino acids using ATP
  • Ribosome continues until it reaches stop codon and detaches
  • Polypeptide chain enters the golgi for modification