Messenger RNA (mRNA) carries genetic data from DNA to the cytoplasm where proteins are made. mRNA is single-stranded and made up of nucleotides, with codons providing templates for amino acids. Transcription and translation are the processes by which mRNA is created and used to produce proteins.
Messenger ribonucleic acid, commonly called messenger RNA or mRNA, is an RNA molecule that codes for a chemical “blueprint” for protein synthesis. Messenger RNA contains a copy of the genetic data contained on a strand of DNA. DNA contains the sum of the primary genetic information of a cell and is stored in the nucleus of the cell. mRNA works to carry that data out of the nucleus and into the cytoplasm of a cell where proteins can be assembled.
Messenger RNA is single stranded, as opposed to DNA, which has two strands arranged in a double helix. Like DNA, mRNA molecules are made up of nucleotides, the building blocks of nucleic acids. Different nucleotides, when arranged in certain sequences, provide the template code used for protein production. The groups of triplets of three nucleotides on an mRNA strand are known as codons; each codon contains the code for a single amino acid. Proteins are made up of amino acids.
There are four different nucleotides that can exist on a messenger RNA strand: adenine, uracil, guanine, and cytosine. Because of this, there are 64 possible triplet groups, or codons, containing templates for different amino acids. There are, however, only 20 different amino acids; some codons code for the same amino acids. Scientists have identified for which amino acid each codon on an mRNA strand provides a template. The uracil-adenine-guanine codon, for example, codes for an amino acid that signals the end of the protein template.
Genetic information from DNA is transferred to messenger RNA through a process called transcription, which has three stages. Initially, the DNA double helix is ”unzipped” into two separate strands. Next is elongation, where mRNA nucleotides are assembled from proteins using an unzipped DNA strand as a template. This stage is similar to the process by which DNA divides and replicates. Transcription ends with the termination step, where the assembly proteins reach a set of nucleotides that signal them to stop adding to messenger RNA.
After transcription, messenger RNA is modified by multiple proteins so that it is fully ready to serve as a genetic template for a protein. The process by which the messenger RNA template is interpreted and proteins are produced is called translation. Translation occurs in ribosomes, specialized cell bodies that make proteins. Ribosomes produce amino acids based on the templates provided by the codons in the mRNA. The chemical interactions between these amino acids give them the structure that allows them to function as proteins, essential to nearly all living systems.
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