In the last article, we ended transcription with a strand of messenger RNA (mRNA) ready to leave the nucleus and travel to the ribosomes. The ribosomes are where translation happens - the next step in protein synthesis. Translation Translation begins with the mRNA strand settling between the two subunits of the ribosome. Each three base... Continue Reading →
Welcome to this series looking at how the genetic code instructs cells to make proteins. We will be talking about DNA, RNA, and proteins a lot so head over to those articles if you are unsure about the basic structure or function of those molecules. Today, we're going to be taking a look inside the... Continue Reading →
We've already looked at the monomers that make up a protein: amino acids. But fully functioning 3D proteins are much more complex in structure than a simple polypeptide chain. Today we will look at the different levels of structure in proteins and some specific examples. Levels of protein structure So let's start with a quick … Read more
Today we are going to take a look at the Golgi apparatus (sometimes called the Golgi body or Golgi complex) and its role in the cell, followed by the lysosomes. The Golgi apparatus We first came across the Golgi apparatus in the article about the ribosomes and rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER). Protein synthesis begins at … Read more
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. In this series we have already seen how nucleotides are the monomers joined together to make polynucleotide chains in DNA and RNA. Similarly, in proteins, amino acids are the monomers joined together to make polypeptide chains. Structure Firstly, let's look at the structure of an amino acid. … Read more
Ribosomes Ribosomes are very small organelles often drawn as dots in diagrams. They are free in the cytoplasm or attached to the rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER). One cell can contain millions of ribosomes if it needs to produce a lot of proteins. If we zoom right in, we find that ribosomes are actually made up … Read more
