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Translation (Basic Detail)

Topic

  • Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
  • Macromolecules
  • DNA & RNA

Resource Type

  • Videos
  • Animations

Level

High School — GeneralHigh School — AP/IBCollege

Duration

00:02:06
Used In
2 BioInteractive Playlists
Favorited By
19 Users
Share This
View in Spanish

Description

This animation shows the translation of messenger RNA into protein.

The ribosome is a molecular factory that translates the genetic information in messenger RNA (mRNA) into a string of amino acids (a polypeptide chain) that becomes a protein. The ribosome assembles around mRNA. Inside the ribosome, the nucleotide sequence of the mRNA is read three nucleotides at a time by transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules. When the three-nucleotide “code” of the mRNA matches a three-nucleotide code in the tRNA, the tRNA binds and the amino acid carried by that particular tRNA is added to the growing polypeptide chain.

This animation shows the translation process in three-dimensional detail, using the production of the hemoglobin protein as an example. Depending on students’ backgrounds, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to identify the molecules and describe their interactions.

Key Terms

amino acid, central dogma, gene expression, hemoglobin, mRNA, nucleic acid, protein, ribosome, tRNA

Terms of Use

The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.

Accessibility Level (WCAG compliance)

Video files meet criteria. Spanish files meet criteria.

Version History

Date Published 02.05.03
Date Updated 06.02.20

NGSS (2013)

HS-LS1.A

AP Biology (2019)

IST-1

IB Biology (2016)

2.7, 7.3

Vision and Change (2009)

CC3

Materials

Large (MOV) 44 MB
Large (WMV) 44 MB
Small (MOV) 14 MB
Small (WMV) 14 MB
Transcript (PDF) 12 KB
Spanish dub (Español) (MP4) 255 MB
Transcript - Español (PDF) 178 KB

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This Resource Appears in the Following Playlists

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HHMI BioInteractive

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