| Correspondences |
| A cell |
Los Gatos |
| The cell's nucleus |
Borders bookstore |
| DNA |
Cookbooks |
| Genes |
Recipes |
| Step 1: Transcription |
| You go to Borders. |
mRNA moves into the nucleus. |
| Copy a recipe… |
Transcribe the DNA… |
| …from ink on the page to bits in your laptop computer. |
…from the DNA molecule to mRNA. |
| Step 2: RNA Processing |
| Staying in Borders, you settle down with your laptop computer to edit the recipe. |
Pre-mRNA remains in the nucleus for RNA processing. |
| You add a personal title and ending to your recipe. |
A 5' cap and poly(A) tail are added to the mRNA. |
| You remove superfluous material and formatting from the middle of the recipe. |
Introns are removed and eliminated from the middle of the mRNA. |
| Step 3: Translation |
| You leave Borders with your edited recipe. |
mRNA leaves the nucleus. |
| You take the edited recipe home to your kitchen to make the casserole. |
mRNA finds a ribosome to make a protein. |
| The edited recipe is used as instructions for making a casserole. |
mRNA is used as the instructions for making a protein. |