• Question: what is the machinery inside cells that make proteins?

    Asked by lozzc to Darren, Deuan, Duncan, Lori-An, Michelle on 16 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Darren Nesbeth

      Darren Nesbeth answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Two sets of machinery:

      First one converts the DNA into a small bit of RNA. A bit like downloading some files from your computer onto a stick or a CD.

      Second one converts the small bit of RNA into a protein. A bit like opening a file in Word, or Photoshop to actually do something with it.

      The cell will then make use of the protein and, when the protein is worn out, destroy and recycle it.

    • Photo: Lori-An Etherington

      Lori-An Etherington answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Proteins might need to be made for structures in the cell or to act as signalling molecules in many different biological pathways. Genes on chromosomes in the nucleus of the cell determine which protein needs to be made and message to ribosomes which are found outside the nucleus, in the cell cytoplasm. It is the ribosome which makes the protein, and the protein is then delivered via the golgi apparatus (also in the cell cytoplasm) to its required destination.

    • Photo: Duncan Hull

      Duncan Hull answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      The machinery inside cells that makes proteins is called the “ribosome”, wikipedia has a nice article on it see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribosome with some pictures to help illustrate what it looks like. The ribosome is a clever piece of machinery that assembles proteins from their smaller building blocks (called amino acids). The ribosome is very very small but, like a lot of things in biology, it works beautifully.

    • Photo: Michelle Hudson-Shore

      Michelle Hudson-Shore answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Everyone else seems to have answered this really well so there isn’t really anything I can add 🙂

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