Protein synthesis is the process of making proteins from their building block molecules, amino acids. Nucleic acids -- DNA and RNA -- are essential to protein synthesis. DNA provides the instructions a cell uses to make protein, while RNA acts as a template and makes up some of the physical machinery for protein synthesis.
Protein Synthesis
The process of protein synthesis is essential to the function of all metabolically active cells. Making proteins requires a cell to assemble building blocks -- amino acid molecules -- in the correct order for a particular protein. Because there are 20 common amino acids, and because each protein might be hundreds of amino acids long, this is no small task. Protein synthesis requires both instructions and coordination by many different types of cellular machinery and molecules.
DNA
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is perhaps the most familiar of the nucleic acids. Cells keep their DNA in their nuclei, which protects the genetic material from damage. A cell's DNA contains all the organism's genetic information, and helps the cell know exactly what proteins it needs to produce for both structural and functional purposes. All proteins a cell makes have the instructions for their production encoded in the cell's DNA.
mRNA
Because DNA is stored in a cell's nucleus and the cell's protein-synthesizing machinery is outside the nucleus, making protein requires help from a template molecule. This molecule is called mRNA, short for messenger ribonucleic acid. The mRNA copies genetic information from DNA in the nucleus, then moves outside the nucleus, carrying genetic information with it. Once outside the nucleus, protein-synthesizing machinery can read the mRNA and use the information to produce protein, explain Drs. Reginald Garrett and Charles Grisham in their book "Biochemistry."
rRNA and tRNA
Two additional kinds of nucleic acid, rRNA and tRNA, also assist in protein production. Short for ribosomal and transfer RNA respectively, these two types of RNA assist in making protein from the mRNA template. The rRNA helps read information on mRNA, and tRNA fetches amino acids in the order indicated by mRNA and brings them back to the protein-synthesizing machinery for incorporation into a growing protein chain, explain Drs. Mary Campbell and Shawn Farrell in their book "Biochemistry."
References
- "Biochemistry"; Reginald Garrett, Ph.D. and Charles Grisham, Ph.D.; 2007
- "Biochemistry"; Mary Campbell, Ph.D. and Shawn Farrell, Ph.D.; 2005
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