Nucleic Acid Message

Biological Environment > Nucleic Acid Message

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We show a single strand of nucleic acid like this: the four different types of base sticking out of the backbone. This diagram shows only four bases. In life one strand would have hundreds of bases.

The order of these bases is very important. It determines how proteins are built.

This nucleic acid is called messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA. It carries the message of how to build one protein. But how is that message read and used?