M&M Protein

Synthesis Activity
Red/Brown A
Yellow/Orange T
Blue C
Green G
 1. Write your name, date, and block in top right
corner.
2. In the TOP LEFT section, shade the LARGE circle to
A TG be your nucleus (my example in light blue).
C GG C 3. Write the first 12 letters of the unique DNA strand
A C T A you have been given in the top part of the circle
T C C C
GG
(my example shown in dark purple)
GA T 4. Is your DNA complete? (NO). Let’s write the
T AG G complementary strand so that we have a complete
C U
G GA double helix. (my example shown in light purple).

A CC 5. Now TRANSCRIBE the BOTTOM (original) strand of

UC
DNA and write it as mRNA in the nucleus (my
G A example shown in orange)

6. Shade the MEDIUM circle to be a ribosome in the BOTTOM

RIGHT corner (my example shown in green). Met
7. REWRITE the mRNA strand you just transcribed on the
ribosome (orange rectangle again).
Arg
8. Look at each 3 letter codon on the mRNA and TRANSLATE
your mRNA using the universal genetic code. Add to the
Pro
“protein chain” coming off the top of the ribosome that Asp
includes each of the amino acids. (my example shown in red).
9. Label the following in the diagram: Nucleus, DNA, mRNA, U G
Ribosome, Transcription, Translation, Codon, Amino Acid, G A
Protein C G
A C
10. On the back of the paper, describe the full process of protein
U C
synthesis, including key vocabulary mentioned in #9. Refer G A
to this exercise to help you.
 Name: __________________

3.

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8.

7.