Explanation:
Basic Biology
BASIC BIOLOGY
Inspired by life
TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSLATION
Genes provide information for building proteins. They don’t however directly create proteins. The production of proteins is completed through two processes: transcription and translation.
Transcription and translation take the information in DNA and use it to produce proteins. Transcription uses a strand of DNA as a template to build a molecule called RNA.
The RNA molecule is the link between DNA and the production of proteins. During translation, the RNA molecule created in the transcription process delivers information from the DNA to the protein-building machines.
DNA → RNA → Protein
DNA and RNA are similar molecules and are both built from smaller molecules called nucleotides. Proteins are made from a sequence of amino acids rather than nucleotides. Transcription and translation are the two processes that convert a sequence of nucleotides from DNA into a sequence of amino acids to build the desired protein.
These two processes are essential for life. They are found in all organisms – eukaryotic and prokaryotic. Converting genetic information into proteins has kept life in existence for billions of years.
DNA and RNA
RNA and DNA are very similar molecules. They are both nucleic acids (one of the four molecules of life), they are both built on a foundation of nucleotides and they both contain four nitrogenous bases that pair up.
A strand of DNA contains a chain of connecting nucleotides. Each nucleotide contains a sugar, and a nitrogenous base and a phosphate group. There is a total of four different nitrogenous bases in DNA: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C).
A strand of DNA is almost always found bonded to another strand of DNA in a double helix. Two strands of DNA are bonded together by their nitrogenous bases. The bases form what are called ‘base pairs’ where adenine and thymine bond together and guanine and cytosine bond together.
Adenine and thymine are complementary bases and do not bond with the guanine and cytosine. Guanine and cytosine only bond with each other and not adenine or thymine.
There are a couple of key differences between the structure of DNA and RNA molecules. They contain different sugars. DNA has a deoxyribose sugar while RNA has a ribose sugar.
