M4. The flow of information from DNA to protein is unidirectional in most organisms.

Student Outcome: M4.1

Describe and illustrate the processes of transcription and translation, including the roles of mRNA, tRNA, and ribosomes.

This is translation and is it from www.frontiers-in-genetics.org:

This is from Wikipedia and it illustrates translation:

In the cell nucleus, RNA is produced by transcription, in much the same way that DNA replicates itself. RNA, however, substitutes the sugar ribose for deoxyribose and the base uracil for thymine, and is usually single-stranded. One form of RNA, messenger RNA or mRNA, conveys the DNA recipe for protein synthesis to the cell cytoplasm. There, bound temporarily to a cytoplasmic particle known as a ribosome, each three-base codon of the mRNA links to a specific form of transfer RNA (tRNA) containing the complementary three-base sequence. This tRNA, in turn, transfers a single amino acid to a growing protein chain. Each codon thus unambiguously directs the addition of one amino acid to the protein. On the other hand, the same amino acid can be added by different codons; in this illustration, the mRNA sequences GCA and GCC are both specifying the addition of the amino acid alanine (Ala).

Here is protein synthesis overall: (Source: http://www.theodora.com/genetics/images/transcription.jpg)

Source: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/graphics/slides/images/03b_lg.gif

This site is called Concord and it has a very vivid animation of the process of protein synthesis. Awesome!

Go here: Transcribe and Translate a Gene for an excellent interactive program to illustrate this idea.

Here is another interative site from PBS. You go through both transcription and translation.

Yet another protein synthesis animation. Really simple and easy to understand. Well done Crop Technology!

Below is a simple animation showing the process of translation. Can you identify the different chemicals invovled?

This video contains the whole process of protein synthesis

Here is another video from TeacherTube. If you don't get it by now then...go and read your text book!

Further - another beautiful video on the whole process of protein synthesis. Fantastic work!

Wow. One of the latest animations explaining protein synthesis and much more:

The latest version from Nature Science (Jan 2011) - looks like spaceships!

Finally (probably not) another video showing protien synthesis but using humans to act out the different process. The introduction is pretty dry but bear with it.

Here is a wheel which will help determine which amino acid is chosen according to the base sequence of mRNA.

Start in the middle of the wheel with the first base then work your way outwards - you should end up with a particular amino acid.

Go here for a simulation of the final stages of translation.

This is the information about DNA replication that I shared with the class in week 2 and 3.