| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
|
4. Science Terms: Distinctions, Restrictions, and Confusions
|
| § 43. transcription / translation |
| It is a concept that is accepted by most everyone these days: The double helix of genetic material known as DNA is the fundamental unit of heredity. These molecular maps use a unique copying process to duplicate their information, thus allowing then to continually send out the information needed to guide an organism’s growth and functioning. This copying process is called transcription, built from the Latin prefix trans-, “across,” and scribere, “to write.” Far more than a simple letter-for-letter replication, transcription results in a strand of genetic material that is complementary to one of the two strands of DNA; that is, it is built of molecular entities that are the perfect partners to the components in that strand of DNA. This complementary molecule is known as mRNA or messenger RNA. True to its name, mRNA serves as an information carrier, moving from the area of the cell containing the DNA, known as the nucleus, to the area surrounding the nucleus, known as the cytoplasm. Once in the cytoplasm, mRNA takes up residence in cellular workstations known as ribosomes, locations that make it available to another form of RNA, known as tRNA or transfer RNA. Each tRNA carries an organic compound known as an amino acid. By interpreting the directions contained in mRNA, tRNAs position their amino acids in a particular sequence, a sequence that ultimately forms a particular protein, one of the multitude of proteins vital to the body’s functioning. This process of interpretation is called translation, from Latin trans- and latus, “brought.” Thus, through the cellular processes of transcription and translation, the information of DNA is neatly noted and cleverly transformed into a proteinic language that is readily understood—and used—by the body. | 1 |
|
|
|
| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
