Translation

The information needed for producing a protein is mostly stored in DNA. During translation, this information, passed to the ribosome by messenger RNAs, is read to produce a polypeptide according to the correspondences defined by the genetic code. The process is similar enough in prokaryotes and eukaryotes that once you understand how it works in one, the other is simple. Pay special attention to the molecular interactions that generate a correspondence between nucleotide and amino acid sequences.

Medical Perspectives

Learning resources

• Study Guide
• tRNA structure and charging
• The ribosome at work. Diagramatic.
• The ribosome at work. CGI version. (Be careful. 0:56 - 1:16 of the animation is misleading. In fact, about 95% of what diffuses into the A site will just diffuse out again without being used.)
• peptidyl transferase activity: A ribozyme at work
• A polyribosome assembly on eukaryotic mRNA
• Narration: The basics
• Narration: Reading frames
• Narration: coupling amino acids to their tRNAs
• Narration: codon and anticodon
• Narration: The Ribosome
• Narration: The Ribosome at work