How Translation Works

What is Translated during Translation? The two major steps in creating a protein are transcription and translation. Transcription creates an mRNA molecule, using a DNA sequence as a template. DNA and mRNA are similar, although certainly not identical, molecules. An mRNA sequence is essentially a copy of a DNA sequence with the thymines replaced by uracil. The production of mRNA is known as transcription which means copying. Creating a protein from an mRNA sequence is known as translation because the structure of a protein is very different from that of mRNA. Proteins are sequences of amino acids, not bases. The information in the mRNA is converted to a new form – it is translated. A sequence of bases is translated into a sequence of amino acids.

View the animation below, then complete the quiz to test your knowledge of the concept.


1	Translation is the synthesis of

		A)	mRNA from DNA.
		B)	mRNA from proteins.
		C)	proteins from DNA
		D)	proteins from mRNA
		E)	proteins from tRNA

2	Which of the following occurs as the ribosome shifts down the mRNA by a distance of three nucleotides?

		A)	the tRNA that was in the A site moves into the E site
		B)	the tRNA that was in the P site moves into the A site
		C)	the tRNA that was in the E site moves into the P site
		D)	the tRNA that was in the E site moves into the A site
		E)	the tRNA that was in the P site moves into the E site

3	Translation is terminated when a stop codon is presented at the ________ site.

		A)	A
		B)	P
		C)	E
		D)	either A or B
		E)	either A or C

4	The first amino acid enters through the A site.

		A)	True
		B)	False

5	The codon of tRNA is complementary to the anticodon of mRNA.

		A)	True
		B)	False

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