Tuesday 28 May 2013

Protein Synthesis: GCSE Biology

Protein Synthesis is the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with... Well the second hardest. 1



Since it's difficult I thought I would try to format it a bit different. If not for you, so I can at least understand it.

Key Words: 

  • Transcription
  • Translation
  • mRNA (Messenger RNA)
  • RNA (Ribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid present in all living cells. Its principal role is to act as a messenger carrying instructions from DNA)
  • Codons (A triplet of bases)
  • Ribosome (Or big Riby if you wish)
  • tRNA 
First thing to remember PROTEINS ARE IMPORTANT. They are key in GROWTH AND BODY CHANGES. I will split this into the 2 stages:

Transcription:

2 DNA strands unzip. These are Complementary. This means the the strand is exactly the same. If it helps you to remember:
"Why, what a nice whip you have there! I also have the same model." 

This is a compliment and they have the same whip. Let's not go into details on that. Each to their own.

The mRNA molecule moves out of the nucleus and joins with a ribosome.
"I shall call him Riby and he shall be mine and he shall be my Riby. Come on, Riby Come on, little Riby."

The reason I put these crap jokes in is in hope that you might remember it in the exam and think oh I remember that guy trying to be funny with that stupid Riby joke... Riby... Ribosome! Boom, 1 more mark.

Anyhow, moving on. This brings us onto the following stage:

Translation

Amino acids are brought to big Riby by tRNA molecules. Why? Because the Ribosome is effectively a glue stick. It sticks the Amino Acids together in a chain to make a protein chain (polypeptide). "These follow the order of the triplet of bases called codons in the mRNA." A big sentence to simply say they are in 3s.

All of this ends up creating a protein that, due to the enzymes bringing the correct Amino acids, can do a certain job.

So if this confused you even more, i'll try and sum it up:

  1. DNA Strands Unzip and complementary strand is created, this is mRNA. (TRANSCRIPTION) 
  2. mRNA joins with Ribosome.
  3. Amino acids specially selected by tRNA and brought to the Ribosome.
  4. Ribosome sticks the amino acids together in codons. (TRANSLATION)
Well, I really hope this didn't confuse you more. Drop us a comment if it did and i'll answer best I can. 





1.The hardest thing was amalgamated algorithms, get your head out of the gutter.






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