Lecture 17 Central Dogma IV: Translation (Part 2) Elongation & Termination

A collection of vocabulary flashcards to help learners understand key concepts related to the translation process in protein synthesis.

tRNA

Transfer RNA that acts as an adaptor matching mRNA codons to their specific amino acids.

Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetase

An enzyme that attaches the correct amino acid to its corresponding tRNA.

Initiator tRNA

The tRNA that carries methionine and sets the start codon for translation.

Peptidyl Transferase

An enzymatic activity of the large ribosomal subunit that catalyzes peptide bond formation.

Termination

The stage of translation where a stop codon is reached, resulting in the release of the completed polypeptide.

Wobble Hypothesis

The concept that some tRNAs can recognize more than one codon due to flexible base pairing.

Polycistronic mRNA

mRNA that encodes multiple proteins from one transcript, typically found in prokaryotes.

Nonsense Mutation

A mutation that creates a premature stop codon in a gene.

Translation

The process of decoding mRNA to synthesize a polypeptide.

Ribosome

The cellular machinery that facilitates the translation of mRNA into protein by providing binding sites for tRNA.

GTP Hydrolysis

The process that provides energy during translation and drives ribosomal movement along the mRNA.

A Site

The ribosomal site where incoming aminoacyl-tRNA binds.

P Site

The ribosomal site that holds the tRNA with the growing polypeptide chain.

E Site

The ribosomal site that holds the deacylated tRNA before it exits the ribosome.

Translation Elongation

The phase in translation where amino acids are added one by one as the ribosome moves along the mRNA.

Antibiotics

Compounds that can disrupt bacterial translation by binding to the ribosome.