Protein Synthesis Study
Guide
DNA and RNA
• DNA has 2 strands, RNA has 1.
• DNA has thymine , RNA has uracil
• DNA has deoxyribose, RNA has ribose
Nucleotides
• Phosphate
• 5 carbon sugar
• Nitrogenous base
DNA
• Double helix
• Structure discovered by Watson and Crick
Proteins
• All human proteins are made of a
combination of 20 amino acids.
• Amino acids are connected by peptide
bonds.
• Chains of amino acids make up proteins
Complementary bases
• DNA
• T-A
• C-G
• RNA
• A-U
• C-G
Three processes
• Replication: DNA made from DNA
• Transcription: mRNA made from DNA
• Translation: mRNA pairs up with tRNA
Mutations
• Insertion: one more base
• Deletion: one less base
• Inversion: a segment is flipped, but the
number of bases is unchanged
• Mutagen: an agent in the environment that
can change DNA
The bases
• Purines: 2 rings, Adenine, Guanine
• Pyrimidines: 1 ring, Thymine (in DNA),
Uracil (in RNA), and Cytosine
• 3 base sequence in mRNA is a codon
• 3 base sequencein tRNA is an anti-codon
In the cell
• DNA is always found in the nucleus only
• Protein synthesis takes place at the
ribosome, which is made of rRNA.