Biology

• Protein synthesis


  The process of making proteins
• Steps of Protein synthesis

  1. Transcription

  2. Translation
• Transcription


  The process of taking a single gene of DNA and copying it into a structure called mRNA
• Translation


  The process of taking the mRNA strand and using it to produce a protein
• Inside almost every cell is a nucleus that contains all the genetic material of that cell in the form of DNA
• Gene


  Small sections of the DNA that have a specific sequence of bases and are able to code for a specific sequence of amino acids
• The specific sequence of bases has to be read by structures called ribosomes which are outside of the nucleus
• mRNA


  A copy of a single gene that is small enough to leave the nucleus and make its way to the ribosome
• Properties of mRNA

  • It is much shorter than DNA because it's only a single gene long
  • It is a single strand rather than a double strand like DNA
  • It contains the base uracil instead of thymine
• Transcription process


  1. RNA polymerase binds to the DNA

  2. The two strands of DNA separate

  3. RNA polymerase reads the DNA bases and uses them to make an mRNA strand

  4. The mRNA strand is then free to leave the nucleus
• Template strand


  The DNA strand that the RNA polymerase moves along to make the mRNA
• Codon


  A group of three bases that codes for a specific amino acid
• tRNA


  Molecules that bring the correct amino acids to the ribosome based on the codons in the mRNA
• Translation process


  1. mRNA and ribosome bind together

  2. tRNA brings amino acids to the ribosome based on the codons in the mRNA

  3. Ribosome joins the amino acids together to form a protein chain

  4. Completed protein chain detaches from the ribosome and folds into its final shape