Question

Briefly describe the following:

Translation

Answer 1

Translation is the process of polymerising amino acids to form polypeptide chains. The triplet sequence of base pairs in mRNA defines the order and sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide chain.

The process of translation involves three steps:

1. Initiation
2. Elongation
3. Termination

During the initiation of the translation, tRNA gets charged when the amino acid binds to it using ATP. The start (initiation) codon (AUG) present on mRNA is recognised only by the charged tRNA. The ribosome acts as an actual site for the process of translation and contains two separate sites in a large subunit for the attachment of subsequent amino acids. The small subunit of the ribosome binds to mRNA at the initiation codon (AUG) followed by the large subunit. Then, it initiates the process of translation. During the elongation process, the ribosome moves one codon downstream along with mRNA to leave space for binding another charged tRNA. The amino acid introduced by tRNA gets linked with the previous amino acid through a peptide bond, and this process continues, resulting in the formation of a polypeptide chain. When the ribosome reaches one or more STOP codons (VAA, UAG, and UGA), the process of translation gets terminated. The ribosomes detach from mRNA and release the polypeptide chain.