Basic Steps of Translation and Transcription

Welcome to MooMoo Math and Science and transcription and translation in simple terms.

Here's a general overview.

A portion of DNA is used as a template to make RNA, technically messenger RNA, and this phase is called transcription.

Then the messenger RNA will travel to a ribosome where translation will occur and the amino acids will be put together in the correct order in order to create the protein.

So let's take a look at transcription.

Transcription begins when RNA polymerase begins to unzip a portion of DNA.

As it unzips, the four bases of RNA begin to make a strand of messenger RNA.

The messenger RNA will detach from the DNA and travel outside of the nucleus.

Notice that the four bases are the same as DNA for RNA, except thymine is replaced with uracil.

Next up, we have translation.

Translation.

Translation occurs at the ribosome and is an important stage of protein synthesis.

Messenger RNA that has traveled from the nucleus arrives at a ribosome.

Ribosomes are found in the cytoplasm and in some cells at the ER.

Ribosomes are protein-making machines and are made up of R RNA and proteins.

Ribosomes consist of two major components, the small subunit, which reads the RNA,

and the large subunit, which joins amino acids to form a polypeptide chain.

At the ribosome, the messenger RNA is read three units at a time.

This triplet is called a codon.

A transfer RNA has an anticodon, which matches with the codon,

and has an amino acid attached.

As a new transfer RNA moves to the M RNA, the amino acids bond together with a peptide bond.

And a string of amino acids begins to form called a polypeptide chain.

This process will continue until a stop codon is read.

In this example, the stop code is UGA.

A transfer RNA has an anticodon attached and an amino acid. The anticodon is a unit made up of three nucleotides

that correspond to the three bases of the codon on the M RNA.

Each amino acid attaches to a particular codon.

You can use an amino acid chart to see which codon matches with each amino acid.

After the stop code is reached, the string of amino acids may begin to fold into a functional protein.

So there we go, translation and protein synthesis.

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