Translation

The Genetic Code

- The genetic code is a dictionary identifying the link between a sequence of nucleotides and a sequence of amino acids. - The genetic code is degenerate, specific, universal, and non-overlapping. D-SUN - The genetic code consists of 3 nucleotide codons. - AUG is the initiation codon signaling the start of the open reading frame. - UAA, UAG, and UGA are termination codons, signaling the end of an open reading frame. - The open reading frame is usually a gene encoding a protein

Wobble Hypothesis
-This explains how the 61 codons out of the 64 possible codons, can still be translated even though there are less tRNA than the expected 61. - There are 64 possible codons for the genetic code. - Three of these 64 codons on the mRNA are stop codons, which terminate translation by binding to release factors rather than tRNA molecules. - Each of the remaining 61 codons requires their own tRNA to be read, however fewer than 61 tRNA exist. - The Wobble Hypothesis is used to explain how few tRNA can actually read all the codons on mRNA. - A minimum of 32 tRNAs are needed to translate all 61 codons.

Protein synthesis
-Occurs in 5 steps 1) Amino acid activation 2) Initiation 3) Elongation 4)Termination and Release 5) Folding and posttranslational processing. a.a + tRNA + ATP Mg2+ aminoacyltRNA + AMP + PPi

AminoacyltRNA synthetases adds the 20 amino acids to their corresponding tRNA

Amino Acid Activation Ribosome Mechanism