Protein / Translation

What do muscles, hair and the hormone insulin have in common? Right! They all consist of proteins.

Proteins are the building blocks and workers of our cells. Roll over the image to see a few examples of what proteins can perform in the human body.

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How does something so seemingly simple as DNA's long sequence, composed of only four different letters, get converted into the 100,000 or so different kinds of protein molecules that perform the daily work in our body? This is accomplished by the cell's protein-making factory and is called translation.

DNA Replication

Every cell has to contain the precious book of life, the DNA. To make this possible, a complex machinery, like a copying machine, copies the cells DNA before it divides. That way each daughter cell receives an exact copy of the dividing cell's DNA. This doubling of DNA is called replication.
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In addition to this "copying machine" cells have evolved mechanisms to correct mistakes that sometimes occur during DNA replication, a DNA repair system. Abnormalities in these processes, copying and repairing, result in a failure of accurate replication and maintenance of DNA - a failure that can have disastrous consequences, such as the development of cancer.

Thus replication constitutes the fundamental condition for biological growth (cell division) and transmission of genetic information, DNA, from one generation to another (reproduction).