We now know that the codon triples code for a specific Amino Acid, and that these acids, when strung together in the order set down by the genetic code will form predetermined proteins, BUT…. How do these Amino Acids actually get strung together?


Each gene holds the “blueprint” for the protein that it will cause to be produced. This gene is uncoupled much like sawing a ladder in half down the centre of the rungs but the principle of complementary base pairing means that the pattern can be preserved when the amino acids are attached.


This “uncoupling” by the DNA Helicase is called “Transcription”. The graphic below emulates this severing of the DNA helix by the breaking of the double and triple hydrogen bonds making it.



mRNA is small enough to penetrate the pores in the nuclear wall and make it out into the Cytoplasm. When mRNA ‘escapes’ like this, with its coded information for protein synthesis, it heads for a RIBOSOME ‘protein factory’ where the synthesis takes place.


"Translation" literally means "to carry across". In this case, what is being carried across is information that originally was in the genome, enshrined in DNA, then gets transcribed into messenger RNA and then that information is translated from the messenger RNA to a protein.


At the time of creation of mRNA, other RNA derivatives (tRNA and rRNA) are created and released into the cytoplasm.


tRNA (transfer RNA) molecules bind to a specific amino acid. When they have delivered their payload, they are freed from the ribosome to the cytoplasm to collect another amino acid (the same one every time, the one they code for) ready for the next trip back to the ribosome.