Protein synthesis Flashcards
what is protein synthesis?
the process of a gene making a protein
what are the two steps of protein synthesis?
transcription (DNA-mRNA)
translation (mRNA-protein)
what is mRNA and its function?
messenger RNA, carries the instruction for one gene. its function is to make a copy of a gene and take it to the ribosome where amino acids are assembled to make a protein
what are amino acids?
molecules used by all living things to make proteins
what is rna polymerase
an enzyme which synthesises RNA from DNA.
what is the role of the ribosome
the ribosome reads instructions from mRNA and uses them to make proteins in a cell
what is transcription?
process of copying genetic code into mRNA
what are the three steps of transcription?
inititiation, elongation and termination.
initiation
RNA polymerase binds to the promoter region of a gene causing the DNA to unwind. The enzyme is now ready to make a strand of mRNA.
elongation
RNA polymerase reads the template DNA strand and adds complimentary nucleotides to synthesise the mRNA molecule. A PAIRS WITH U
termination
the ending of transcription and occurs when RNA polymerase crosses a termination sequence in the gene. The mRNA strand is complete and detaches from DNA.
what is translation?
what is a codon?
3 nucleotides found on the mRNA that codes for the specific amino acid
what is an anticodon?
3 nucleotide sequence found on the tRNA that binds to the mRNA sequence
describe the steps of translation
the mRNA moves through to the cytoplasm and attaches to the ribosome. The START codon must be read (always AUG). After reading the START codon tRNA (transfer RNA) molecules transport the amino acids to the mRNA strand at the ribosome. tRNA links with the ribosome and matches its anticodon with the codon of the mRNA…
