Thereare three stages of protein synthesis:

0 Initiation

Assembly of
ribosome on mRNA.
e Activation of amino
acids and its
(G) E l o n g a t i o n
delivery to tRNA.
Repeated cycle of:amino acid
delivery.
o Peptide bond formation and movement along the
tíi) Termination
mRNA called translocation.
The release of apolypeptide chain,
(Met
(a) Initiation
IMet)

U¢C
JAUGI 5'
3
Small subunit mRNA AUGTT
MRNA Initiation, or
binding site first codon mRNA P site Asite
binding site

Released
(b) Elongation IRNA phe)
Dipeptide

fMet
fMetVal Val

5
LIIAUGGUCUUc

First Second
codon cOdon

(c) Termination Polypeptide

Last
tRNA
Large
Trp subunit

3
UGGUGJA|
MRNA
Release
factor

Small subünit
Stop
COdon

Fig.6.14 Process of translation

0 Initiation
largeand small ribosome subunits. the mRNA, initiation
" In prokaryotes, initiation requires the
URNA and three initiation factors ([Fs).
 Activation of amino acid: Amino acids become activated by binding with aminoac o
synthetase enzyme in the presence of ATP.
aminoacyl RNA
Aminoacyl tRNA
Aminoacid (AA) + ATP synthetases
AA-AMP-Enzyme complex + P
Transfer of amino acid to tRNA: The AA-AMP-Enzyme complex formed reacts with sperit.
IRNA to form aminoacyl-tRNA complex.
AA-AMP-Enzyme complex + tRNA - + AA-RNA + AMP + Enzyme.
The cap region of mRNA binds to the smaller subunit of ribosome.
s The ribosome has two sites, A-site and P-site.
The smaller subunit first binds to the initiator mRNA and then binds to the larger subunit so
that initiation codon (AUG) lies on the P-site.
The initiation tRNA, i.e., methionyl tRNA then binds to the P.site.
(i) Elongation of polypeptide chain
Another charged aminoacyl tRNA complex binds to the A-site of the ribosome at the second
codon.
A peptide bond is formed between carboxyl group (COOH) of amino acid at P-site and
group (-NH) of amino acid at A-site by the enzyme peptidyl transferase.
The ribosome slides over mRNA from codon tocodon in the 5-3 direction.
According to the sequence of codons, amino acids are attached to one another by pepide
bonds and a polypeptide chain is formed.

(iii) Termination of polypeptide

When the A-siteof ribosomereaches a termination codon which does not code for any amino
acid, no charged tRNA binds to the A-site.
Dissociation of polypeptide from ribosome takes place, which is catalysed by a release factor'.
There are three termination codons namely UGA, UAG and UAA.