Which part of the living system did you change?
Labs / Biology
DNA to Protein
Press play and watch RNA polymerase copy the DNA coding strand into mRNA, then a ribosome read each three-letter codon while tRNA delivers the matching amino acid to grow a protein. Click any DNA base to mutate the gene — the effect on the finished protein appears instantly.
Labs / Biology / DNA to Protein
DNA to Protein
Press play and watch RNA polymerase copy the DNA coding strand into mRNA, then a ribosome read each three-letter codon while tRNA delivers the matching amino acid to grow a protein. Click any DNA base to mutate the gene — the effect on the finished protein appears instantly.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Living systems are connected and constantly changing. This model makes one biological process visible so you can test how its parts affect one another.
Explore
Try the model
progress 0/15 ntcodon AUG → Metpeptide —
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Click the third base of a codon so the letter changes but the amino acid does not. Why can DNA change without changing the protein at all?
- Switch a single base to turn Gly into Ser. How much of the protein is affected by one wrong letter — and would that always matter?
- Try the Nonsense preset. Where does the peptide chain stop, and why does an early stop codon make such a drastic difference?
- Mutate the very first codon away from AUG. What happens to translation when the ribosome can't find where to start?
- Step through one codon at a time. Can you predict the next amino acid from the mRNA before the tRNA delivers it?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Explain the process as a chain: a change happens, the system responds, and that response affects what happens next. Use an observation from the model as evidence.
Check
Before you leave
How did the system respond?
How would you explain that response?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.