The Ribosome And Its Importance As
You Have Not Seen It Before
By ribosome, all living cells
proteins are synthesized.
It's a large macromolecule composed
of ribonucleic acids (ribosomal RNAs (rRNA)) and
proteins.
It has a complex asymmetric
quaternary structure.
To
synthesize protein, the ribosome must have
(1)
an order determining the sequence of amino acids in the polypeptide chain of
protein,
(2) the amino acid substrate that the protein is made
(3) energy.
(2) the amino acid substrate that the protein is made
(3) energy.
The function of the Ribosome
- The ribosome is responsible for forming peptide bonds,
i.e. for the polymerization of amino acid residues into the
polypeptide chain.
- Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) "from the cell genome" gives the program
which starts the sequence of amino acid residues in a polypeptide chain.
- Genes, which are sections of the double-stranded DNA,
work as templates for synthesizing single-stranded
RNA molecules.
- The synthesized RNA species are complementary replicas
of just one of the DNA chains.
- The process accomplished by the enzyme RNA polymerase and called transcription.
- In all eukaryotic cells, and in some prokaryotic cells,
Transcripted RNA may undergo some additional changes called processing in
which certain parts of the nucleotide sequence may be excised from RNA or
altered (edited).
- The mature RNA called messenger RNA (mRNA) and serves as a
program, or template, which determines the amino acid sequence in the
synthesized protein.
- Briefly, the flow of information from DNA to ribosomes
is mediated by gene transcription and RNA processing, resulting in the
formation of mRNA.
- Usually done in the nucleus
- note: DNA and ribosome
are found in the same place, so as a result the ribosome can reach mRNA
and start to synthesize proteins during transcription; this is called
coupled transcription-translation.
- Proteins consist of amino acids. BUT free amino acids
are not used in syncretization of the ribosome.
- Using mRNA as a program the ribosome translates mRNA
from the nucleotide state into the amino acid state of polypeptide chains.
In molecular terms, we can say that
while moving along the mRNA, the ribosome specifically selects
appropriate tRNA (transfer amino acids to
ribosome to form the chain) parts from the medium.
The specificity of the amino acid the residue of a corresponding tRNA selected by the ribosome is made by the
combination of nucleotides in a corresponding stretch of mRNA associated with
the ribosome.
"the nucleotide combinations
that determine, or code, each of the 20 natural amino acids" is known as nucleotide triplets or called codons.
So, the passing of mRNA through the ribosome establishes an order of
entering the various amino acids carried by tRNA into
the ribosome.
This order depends on the sequence
of codons along the mRNA.
The amino acid residue of each
selected tRNA attached covalently to the growing polypeptide chain by the ribosomal machinery.
All of this results in the
bit-by-bit formation of the polypeptide chain, according to the program of
mRNA.
BY \DR.WAHBA AHMED
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