Page 90 - The Miracle of Protein

88 THE MIRACLE OF PROTEIN

Amino Acid Chain Formed Step by
Step in the Factory

During production, doubtless the most important process
is the flawless combining of amino acids and, as explained, this

combining takes place in the ribosome.
Ribosomes exist in all living cells except viruses. With di-
ameters of only 120 - 200 Å (angstrom is one hundred millionth
of a centimeter) they are located in the cytoplasm or are at-

tached to the endoplasmic reticulum. 65% of the ribosome con-
sists of ribosomal RNA and the remaining 35% consists of ribo-
somal proteins.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) that carries the protein information

1. First, the messenger RNA car-
amino acid rying the production instructions
arrives at the ribosome where the
amino acids will be combined.
Then the transfer RNAs arrive
with the ‘raw materials’.
transfer RNA (tRNA)
Transporter RNA (tRNA)