Making Proteins from DNA
11th Grade · Science · 65 min
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Learning Objective
I can describe the steps of protein synthesis, including transcription and translation. I can write an mRNA transcript from a DNA template. I can determine the amino acid sequence from an mRNA transcript.
- 1
The first step of protein synthesis is transcription, which occurs in the nucleus and involves making a copy of a section of DNA.
- 2
During transcription, RNA polymerase unzips the DNA and matches RNA nucleotides to the DNA template, replacing thymine with uracil in the mRNA strand.
- 3
The second step of protein synthesis is translation, which occurs in the cytoplasm and involves ribosomes reading mRNA codons to add the correct amino acid using tRNA.
