Genes code for proteins
Genes contain the coded formula needed by the cell to produce proteins. Proteins are the most common of the complex molecules in your body. Types of proteins include:
- structural proteins, such as those which form hair, skin and muscle;
- messenger proteins, such as hormones, which travel around your body controlling such things as the sugar content of your blood; and
- enzymes, which carry out most of the life processes inside your body, for example making haemoglobin for your red blood cells.
Read about what happens when a gene is changed - work sheet [PDF 46kb | 2 pages]
Reading genes - transcription
When you wish to send information to a friend who lives far away, you write the information onto a letter and send the letter to them, you don’t physically go to your friend and inform them personally. This is a bit like how genes instruct other parts of a cell to do their work for the body.
The first step in the process is transcription.
The information from the gene is written onto another molecule called messenger RNA (short for ribonucleic acid) which takes the information to other parts of the cell to process.
Watch how genes are read or transcribed.
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Interpreting genes - translation
If your friend far away speaks a different language, they would need the letter translated before they could understand it. If you were to send the letter via a translation agency of some description, then when your friend receives the letter, they will understand it perfectly.
In a cell, before any part of the cell can receive and carry out the information, the instructions must be translated into a format it can understand. This new format for the information is called protein. Translation of messenger RNA into protein takes place at the ribosomes. They are the ‘translation agencies’ of a cell.
Try translation for yourself – interactive
The protein is then sent to the part of the cell that needs the information, or it is sent out into the body.
Each gene is a different set of instructions to produce proteins of different shape and chemical composition which perform different functions in the body.
Once genes are read, watch how they are interpreted by the cell.
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