Proteins are the end products of most information pathways. A cell requires about thousands of different proteins. Translation is the process of the synthesis of proteins in the cell. Translation is a complex biosynthetic process that involves several proteins, enzymes and RNA molecules. The genetic information stored in the DNA is transcribed into a messenger RNA (mRNA), which takes the message to the cytosol and is translated into a protein. In prokaryotes, transcription and translation are coupled processes, as they do not have a well-defined nucleus. In eukaryotes, transcription and translation are not coupled because there is compartmentalization of these events; transcription takes place in the nucleus and translation takes place in the cytosol of the cell. Prokaryotic mRNAs are ‘monocistronic’ that is they code for only one protein, whereas eukaryotic mRNAs are ‘polycistronic’ that is they code for many proteins.
INTRODUCTION