The Central Dogma of molecular biology
holds that information encoded by the DNA of living cells is transcribed into
ribonucleic acid, or RNA, that is then translated into protein. To begin the
process of protein synthesis, the DNA molecule shown is first separated at
the location where transcription will take place. Next, an enzyme called RNA
polymerase synthesizes a chain of ribonucleotides, shown in blue, that are
complementary to the bases of the opened DNA strand. The single-stranded RNA
molecule is then released from the DNA template and translated into protein.
Each set of three bases on the RNA strand encodes an amino acid, or protein
building block, shown here as the colored spheres. As the translation
proceeds, a long chain of amino acids is assembled from the information
encoded in the RNA sequence, like beads on a string. The final product of
this process is a completed protein composed of many linked amino acid
building blocks.
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