Cells cannot stay alive without enzymes and other proteins Proteins consist of polypeptide chains, which consist

of amino acids The sequence of the amino acids corresponds to a gene, which is a sequence of nitrogen bases in a DNA molecule Transcription: 1. Is the process of making RNA from DNA 2. In a given region such as a gene, one strand of DNA is transcribed to make RNA. The whole DNA molecule is NOT transcribed. Only small portions that are needed at a given time 3. Can be divided into 2 parts A. Initiation B. Elongation C. Termination Initiation: 1. Begins at the promoter on the DNA molecule 2. Tells the RNA polymerase (enzyme) where to start and which strand of DNA to use 3. RNA polymerase binds to the promoter to begin RNA production Elongation: 1. DNA is unwound in front of the RNA polymerase 2. Complementary RNA nucleotides are strung together to make mRNA 3. This process continues until a termination sequence is reached. The RNA segment is released from the template and DNA winds up again RNA Processing: 1. The new mRNA molecule is unfinished and must be modified before translation (protein synthesis) can begin 2. Introns, which contain junk information are cut out leaving exons behind 3. The Exons are bonded together to make a complete strand of mRNA ready to move out of the nucleus to the cytoplasm Translation: 1. The making of proteins from RNA 2. IS THE PROCESS OF CREATING A PLYPEPTIDE CHAIN (A PROTEIN) FROM MRNA (PROTEIN SYNTHESIS) 3. Translation occurs at a ribosome in the cytoplasm 4. Occurs in the same three stages as transcription Codons: 1. Are in groupings of 3 nucleotides 2. Each codon makes a word that is translated by the tRNA into an amino acid 3. Nitrogenous Bases DNATripletsmRNACodonstRNA anticodons tRNA- reads the mRNA molecule and attaches an amino acid which matches the codon on the mRNA (a triplet of nucleotides) Ribosome

1. Is where translation (protein synthesis) takes place 2. Each ribosome consists of a large subunit and a small subunit. These subunits are composed of rRNA and protein 3. The junction of the 2 subunits is where the mRNA is translated to proteins Translation beings with the start codon on mRNA (start codon is always AUG) Elongation: 1. 2 amino acids on the neighboring tRNA form a peptide bond (making a protein polymer) by the process of dehydration synthesis 2. the first tRNA is now free of its amino acid and it will leave the ribosome 3. a new tRNA can come into the ribosome production another peptide bond between amino acids 4. This process repeats until the polypeptide chain (protein) is complete Termination: 1. The elongation process continues until a stop codon is reached 2. A protein has been made Polysome: 1. A polysome consists of ribosomes and their growing polypeptide chains moving along a single mRNA molecule 2. Protein synthesis can occur many times on the same mRNA