AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The type of RNA that contains the information for making a protein is called messenger RNA (mRNA) because it carries the information, or message, from the DNA out of the nucleus into the cytoplasm.

Detailed explanation-2: -As a critical component of genetic information flow for a certain protein coding gene, messenger RNA extracts coding sequences from genome and applies it as a template for protein synthesis.

Detailed explanation-3: -The role of mRNA is to carry protein information from the DNA in a cell’s nucleus to the cell’s cytoplasm (watery interior), where the protein-making machinery reads the mRNA sequence and translates each three-base codon into its corresponding amino acid in a growing protein chain.

Detailed explanation-4: -During transcription, the enzyme RNA polymerase (green) uses DNA as a template to produce a pre-mRNA transcript (pink). The pre-mRNA is processed to form a mature mRNA molecule that can be translated to build the protein molecule (polypeptide) encoded by the original gene.

Detailed explanation-5: -tRNAs serve as the adaptor molecules that carry the amino acids to the mRNA template, linking information encoded in the genome to protein synthesis. As the key molecules in deciphering the genetic code, tRNAs are highly regulated, processed, and modified (Fig. 1).