Overview of Information

Flow in the Cell

Oane, Jonathan P.
ChE 5201
Information Flow in the Cell
DNA

Core processes involved TRANSCRIPTION

• Transcription RNA

• Translation
TRANSLATION

Protein
Transcription

- defined as the synthesis of

RNA from DNA
Transcription
Steps of Transcription

• Initiation
• Elongation
• Termination
Initiation

- is the beginning of transcription

- occurs when RNA Polymerase bind
to a region called promoter.
Elongation

- is the addition of nucleotides to

the mRNA strand
Termination

- is the ending of transcription

- occurs when RNA polymerase crosses
a stop (termination) sequence in the
gene
 Summary of Transcription
In transcription,DNA
helix unzips
– RNA nucleotides
line up along one
strand of DNA,
following the base-
pairing rules
– single-stranded
messenger RNA
peels away and
DNA strands rejoin
Processing of mRNA

• Splicing
- Removes introns (regions that do not code for proteins), leaving
exons(regions that code for proteins)
• Editing
- changes some of the nucleotides in mRNA.
• Polyadenylation
- adds a “tail” to the mRNA, signals the end of mRNA.
 Translation

- is the process that takes the information passed from DNA

as messenger RNA and turns it into a series of amino acids
bound together with peptide bonds
The site of translation is the ribosome.

mRNA base sequence → amino acids → proteins

Translation
The steps in translation
• The ribosome binds to mRNA at a specific area.
• The ribosome starts matching tRNA anticodon
sequences to the mRNA codon sequence.
• Each time a new tRNA comes into the ribosome, the
amino acid that it was carrying gets added to the
elongating polypeptide chain
 Translation
The steps in translation

• The ribosome continues until it hits a stop sequence,

then it releases the polypeptide and the mRNA.

• The polypeptide forms into its native shape and starts

acting as a functional protein in the cell.
Thank you for listening 