Calculate what the maximum rate of translation by a ribosome in a bacterial cell would have to be, in units of amino acids per second, so as not to overtake an rna polymerase that is transcribing mrna at a rate of 60 nucleotides per second.

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Nina Vaughn

Biology

24 January, 07:12

Calculate what the maximum rate of translation by a ribosome in a bacterial cell would have to be, in units of amino acids per second, so as not to overtake an rna polymerase that is transcribing mrna at a rate of 60 nucleotides per second.

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Tyrell Gentry · Answer 1

We have that DNA is transcribed into mRNA in a one to one fashion, namely one nucleotide of DNA is transcribed to 1 of mRNA. By the genetic code, we have that 3 nucleotides correspond to 1 amino acid. Hence, we have that if in a minute a polymerase transcribes 60 nucleotides, these correspond to 60/3 aminoacids. Hence, the rate has to be at most 20 aminoacids per minute.