In: Biology
A gene is composed of DNA and a protein is composed amino acids. Describe the steps involved in converting the information contained in a gene into a protein.
**Please include and define all of the following terms in your description:**
Ribosome, template strand, non-template strand, reading frame, complementary, tRNA, mRNA, start codon, stop codon, transcription factors, 5’ to 3’, translation, transcription, gene promoter, RNA polymerase
Most genes contain the information needed to make functional molecules called proteins. (A few genes produce other molecules that help the cell assemble proteins.) The journey from gene to protein is complex and tightly controlled within each cell. It consists of two major steps: transcription (process by which the information in a strand of DNA is copied into a new molecule of messenger RNA ) and translation ( process of forming a protein molecule at a ribosomal site of protein synthesis from information contained in messenger RNA ) Together, transcription and translation are known as gene expression. During the process of transcription, the information stored in a gene's DNA is transferred to a similar molecule called RNA (ribonucleic acid) in the cell nucleus. Both RNA and DNA are made up of a chain of nucleotide bases, but they have slightly different chemical properties. The type of RNA that contains the information for making a protein is called messenger RNA (an RNA molecule transcribed from the DNA of a gene, and from which a protein is translated by the action of ribosomes)
Translation, the second step in getting from a gene to a protein, takes place in the cytoplasm. The mRNA interacts with a specialized complex called a ribosome ( a tiny, somewhat mitten-shaped organelle occurring in great numbers in the cell cytoplasm either freely, in small clusters, or attached to the outer surfaces of endoplasmic reticula, and functioning as the site of protein manufacture) which "reads" the sequence of mRNA bases. Each sequence of three bases, called a codon (a triplet of adjacent nucleotides in the messenger RNA chain that codes for a specific amino acid in the synthesis of a protein molecule) usually codes for one particular amino acid. (Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.) A type of RNA called transfer RNA (tRNA) assembles the protein, one amino acid at a time. Protein assembly continues until the ribosome encounters a “stop” codon (a sequence of three bases that does not code for an amino acid).) because it carries the information, or message, from the DNA out of the nucleus into the cytoplasm.
The flow of information from DNA to RNA to proteins is one of the fundamental principles of molecular biology. It is so important that it is sometimes called the “central dogma.”