Transfer RNA

Transfer RNA (tRNA) is a small RNA molecule that carries a specific amino acid to a ribosome and pairs its anticodon with a messenger RNA codon during protein synthesis.

Anticodon: A three-nucleotide sequence in transfer RNA that pairs with a complementary messenger RNA codon. It reads the codon and helps place the carried amino acid in the correct sequence.
RNA: A nucleic acid built from ribonucleotides that functions in information transfer, catalysis, and gene regulation. Transfer RNA is one specialized RNA molecule, with structure suited to translation.
Translation: The cellular process that reads messenger RNA to assemble a polypeptide. Transfer RNA supplies amino acids and decodes codons throughout this process.
Francis Crick: British molecular biologist who helped establish the structure of DNA and proposed key principles of molecular biology. His adaptor hypothesis anticipated a molecule linking nucleic-acid information to amino acids.
Ribosomal RNA: RNA molecules that form the structural and catalytic core of ribosomes. Unlike transfer RNA, ribosomal RNA builds and catalyzes the ribosome rather than carrying amino acids.
Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase: An enzyme that attaches a particular amino acid to its matching transfer RNA. It establishes the correspondence between each transfer RNA and its amino acid.
Nucleotide: A molecule composed of a nitrogenous base, a sugar, and one or more phosphate groups. Transfer RNA’s sequence is a chain of nucleotides whose order shapes its function.
Ribosome: A ribonucleoprotein complex that synthesizes proteins by reading messenger RNA. It positions transfer RNA, messenger RNA, and the growing polypeptide during synthesis.
Adaptor hypothesis: The proposal that an intermediate molecule connects nucleotide sequences with amino acids during protein synthesis. Transfer RNA became the molecular adaptor that made this proposed link concrete.
MicroRNA: A short noncoding RNA that regulates gene expression by guiding repression of target messenger RNAs. MicroRNA regulates messages; transfer RNA decodes them during protein synthesis.

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