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Biology · Glossary

What is The RNAs?

Also known as: messenger RNA · transfer RNA · ribosomal RNA

Definition 11.12 University Biology — Year 1 · Chapter 11 — Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids

RNA is usually single-stranded, and folds back on itself wherever short complementary stretches allow, into hairpins, loops and bulges — a secondary structure — that then packs into a shape. Three classes carry the flow of genetic information (Chapter 19): messenger RNA (mRNA), a copy of a gene that the ribosome reads; transfer RNA (tRNA), some 75 75\, nucleotides folded into a cloverleaf, carrying an amino acid at its 3′3' end and an anticodon that pairs with the message; ribosomal RNA (rRNA), the structural and catalytic core of the ribosome, four fifths of the RNA of a cell. Many other RNAs regulate, splice, and guide (the Year 3 volume).

A transfer RNA in its cloverleaf secondary structure: a single strand of about 75 nucleotides paired with itself into four stems. The amino acid is carried at the 3' end; the anticodon at the opposite tip reads the message.
A transfer RNA in its cloverleaf secondary structure: a single strand of about 75 nucleotides paired with itself into four stems. The amino acid is carried at the 3′3' end; the anticodon at the opposite tip reads the message.
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