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Tandem Repeats and Morphological Variation. Chemical Structure of RNA. Eukaryotic Genome Complexity. RNA Functions. Citation: Clancy, S. Nature Education 1 1 How does the cell convert DNA into working proteins? The process of translation can be seen as the decoding of instructions for making proteins, involving mRNA in transcription as well as tRNA.
Aa Aa Aa. Figure Detail. Where Translation Occurs. Figure 3: A DNA transcription unit. A DNA transcription unit is composed, from its 3' to 5' end, of an RNA-coding region pink rectangle flanked by a promoter region green rectangle and a terminator region black rectangle. Genetics: A Conceptual Approach , 2nd ed. All rights reserved. The Elongation Phase. Figure 6. Termination of Translation. Comparing Eukaryotic and Prokaryotic Translation. References and Recommended Reading Chapeville, F.
European Journal of Biochemistry , — Grunberger, D. Nucleic Acids Research 15 , — Pierce, B. Article History Close. Share Cancel. Revoke Cancel. Keywords Keywords for this Article. Save Cancel.
Flag Inappropriate The Content is: Objectionable. Flag Content Cancel. Email your Friend. Submit Cancel. This content is currently under construction. Explore This Subject. Applications in Biotechnology. DNA Replication. Jumping Genes. Discovery of Genetic Material. Gene Copies. No topic rooms are there. Or Browse Visually. Other Topic Rooms Genetics. Student Voices. Creature Cast. Simply Science. Green Screen.
Green Science. Bio 2. The Success Code. Why Science Matters. The Beyond. Plant ChemCast. Postcards from the Universe. Brain Metrics. Mind Read. Often, this involves the excision of the first amino acid in the chain usually methionine, as this is the particular amino acid indicated by the start codon. Once a protein is complete, it has a job to perform. Some proteins are enzymes that catalyze biochemical reactions.
Other proteins play roles in DNA replication and transcription. Yet other proteins provide structural support for the cell, create channels through the cell membrane, or carry out one of many other important cellular support functions. This page appears in the following eBook.
Aa Aa Aa. The ribosome assembles the polypeptide chain. What is the genetic code? More on translation. How did scientists discover how ribosomes work? What are ribosomes made of? Is prokaryotic translation different from eukaryotic translation? Figure 1: In mRNA, three-nucleotide units called codons dictate a particular amino acid. For example, AUG codes for the amino acid methionine beige. The codon AUG codes for the amino acid methionine beige sphere.
The codon GUC codes for the amino acid valine dark blue sphere. The codon AGU codes for the amino acid serine orange sphere. The codon CCA codes for the amino acid proline light blue sphere. The codon UAA is a stop signal that terminates the translation process. The idea of codons was first proposed by Francis Crick and his colleagues in During that same year, Marshall Nirenberg and Heinrich Matthaei began deciphering the genetic code, and they determined that the codon UUU specifically represented the amino acid phenylalanine.
Following this discovery, Nirenberg, Philip Leder, and Har Gobind Khorana eventually identified the rest of the genetic code and fully described which codons corresponded to which amino acids. Reading the genetic code. Redundancy in the genetic code means that most amino acids are specified by more than one mRNA codon. Methionine is specified by the codon AUG, which is also known as the start codon.
Consequently, methionine is the first amino acid to dock in the ribosome during the synthesis of proteins. Tryptophan is unique because it is the only amino acid specified by a single codon. The remaining 19 amino acids are specified by between two and six codons each. Figure 2 shows the 64 codon combinations and the amino acids or stop signals they specify. Figure 2: The amino acids specified by each mRNA codon. Multiple codons can code for the same amino acid.
Figure Detail. What role do ribosomes play in translation? As previously mentioned, ribosomes are the specialized cellular structures in which translation takes place.
This means that ribosomes are the sites at which the genetic code is actually read by a cell. Figure 3: A tRNA molecule combines an anticodon sequence with an amino acid. These nucleotides represent the anticodon sequence. The nucleotides are composed of a ribose sugar, which is represented by grey cylinders, attached to a nucleotide base, which is represented by a colored, vertical rectangle extending down from the ribose sugar.
The color of the rectangle represents the chemical identity of the base: here, the anticodon sequence is composed of a yellow, green, and orange nucleotide.
At the top of the T-shaped molecule, an orange sphere, representing an amino acid, is attached to the amino acid attachment site at one end of the red tube. During translation, ribosomes move along an mRNA strand, and with the help of proteins called initiation factors, elongation factors, and release factors, they assemble the sequence of amino acids indicated by the mRNA, thereby forming a protein. In order for this assembly to occur, however, the ribosomes must be surrounded by small but critical molecules called transfer RNA tRNA.
Each tRNA molecule consists of two distinct ends, one of which binds to a specific amino acid, and the other which binds to a specific codon in the mRNA sequence because it carries a series of nucleotides called an anticodon Figure 3. In this way, tRNA functions as an adapter between the genetic message and the protein product. The exact role of tRNA is explained in more depth in the following sections. What are the steps in translation? Like transcription, translation can also be broken into three distinct phases: initiation, elongation, and termination.
All three phases of translation involve the ribosome, which directs the translation process. Multiple ribosomes can translate a single mRNA molecule at the same time, but all of these ribosomes must begin at the first codon and move along the mRNA strand one codon at a time until reaching the stop codon.
This group of ribosomes, also known as a polysome , allows for the simultaneous production of multiple strings of amino acids, called polypeptides , from one mRNA. When released, these polypeptides may be complete or, as is often the case, they may require further processing to become mature proteins.
Figure 5: To complete the initiation phase, the tRNA molecule that carries methionine recognizes the start codon and binds to it. The bases are represented by blue, orange, yellow, or green vertical rectangles that protrude from the backbone in an upward direction. Inside the large subunit, the three leftmost terminal nucleotides of the mRNA strand are bound to three anticodon nucleotides in a tRNA molecule. An orange sphere, representing an amino acid, is attached to one tRNA terminus at the top of the molecule.
The ribosome is depicted as a translucent complex bound to fifteen nucleotides at the leftmost terminus of the mRNA strand. The tRNA at left has two amino acids attached at its topmost terminus, or amino acid binding site. The adjacent tRNA at right has a single amino acid attached at its amino acid binding site. A third tRNA molecule is leaving the binding site after having connected its amino acid to the growing peptide chain.
There are five additional tRNA molecules with anticodons and amino acids ready to bind to the mRNA sequence to continue to grow the peptide chain. Figure 7: Each successive tRNA leaves behind an amino acid that links in sequence.
The resulting chain of amino acids emerges from the top of the ribosome. The ribosome is depicted as a translucent complex bound to eighteen nucleotides in the middle of the mRNA strand. The tRNA at left has five amino acids attached at its amino acid binding site, forming a chain. Two additional tRNA molecules, each with a single amino acid attached to the amino acid binding site, are approaching the ribosome from the cytoplasm.
Figure 8: The polypeptide elongates as the process of tRNA docking and amino acid attachment is repeated. The ribosome is depicted as a translucent complex bound to many nucleotides at the rightmost terminus of the mRNA strand. A chain of 19 amino acids is attached to the amino acid binding site at the top of the tRNA molecule. The chain is long enough that it extends beyond the upper border of the ribosome and into the cytoplasm. In the cytoplasm, the peptide chain has folded in on itself several times to form three compact rows of amino acids.
Eventually, after elongation has proceeded for some time, the ribosome comes to a stop codon, which signals the end of the genetic message. As a result, the ribosome detaches from the mRNA and releases the amino acid chain.
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