Question

Which of the following is true regarding the machinery of translation?

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is: a. A single mRNA can be translated simultaneously by several ribosomes.

Explanation:

Ribosomes are structures composed of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) that direct the process of translation, with the help of special proteins and key molecules called transfer RNA (tRNA) that are 'able to read' the codons in the mRNA. To help with this 'reading', ribosomes move through the mRNA strand as the translation moves forward, placing the anticodons presented by the tRNA molecules with their specific match - each mRNA codon - forming a strand of amino acids.

To ease the process in the cases where the molecule to be translated is a polypeptide, groups of ribosomes form a polysome and they all translate one single mRNA strand at the same time. Each of these ribosomes starts translating from the first codon and stop when the stop codon appears.