Gene to Protein Topics in Depth
Transcription, from DNA to RNA
Before we get carried away talking about transcription, we'd better step back a little bit and refresh what we know about DNA. We here at Shmoop have told you a lot about DNA, and about how D...
Similarities Between Transcription and DNA Replication
NucleotidesJust like DNA, RNA is a polymer of nucleic acids, each of which is held together by phosphodiester bonds, or bonds that have a carbon double bonded to an oxygen, C=O.Okay, okay…we know...
Differences Between Transcription and DNA Replication
Up until now, we've focused primarily on how transcription and DNA replication use similar mechanisms to generate a copy of a DNA strand. However, you've probably guessed that transcription has som...
Where Does it Start?
While some simple organisms like bacteria have highly organized genes on DNA, most organisms have their genes scattered within a random mess of DNA sequence. How does the cell know where to begin t...
Where Does it End?
And finally…the end…In prokaryotes, termination is either Rho dependent, or Rho independent. Rho is a specific protein that is thought to bind a specific terminator sequence and promote the dis...
RNA Processing
Okay, maybe that wasn't the end. We hope we made you feel better for a little bit though. We're about to dig deeper into the realms of RNA production.The RNA that is produced from transcription is...
Translation, from RNA to Protein
Up until now we've mainly focused on RNA as a strand of nucleotides that contains the information encoded by DNA. RNA is so much more.It turns out that there are many different types of RNA. In euk...
Cracking the Code: Translation
RNA contains only 4 different nucleotides. A protein can contain up to 20 different amino acids. You don't need to be a math genius to realize the problem here. How does something with only four le...
Mission: Code Protein
Now that you are an expert code breaker, we can start to talk about translation. Let's go over the key players in the process.mRNA. The mRNA is the code that is translated into a functional protein...
Common Mistakes
Transcription Common Mistakes1. When thinking about transcription, think about a scribe making an exact copy of a document. During transcription the cell makes a copy of the DNA using the same lang...
Test Your Knowledge!
Transcription Questions1. Which nucleotide base is found in RNA but not DNA?2. Is DNA or RNA single stranded?3. Which of the following, introns or exons, are present in the mRNA and encode for a pr...
Made From Trees
Best of Murdered Trees (Books)Biology; 6th edition; Neil A. Campbell and Jane Reece © 2011 Pearson EducationThe Phylogenetic Handbook: A Practical Approach to Phylogenetic Analysis and Hypothesis...