Week 14 — Readings & Resources

Your primary reading is Chapter 14 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 69–79 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (16–20 min total)

• How are Proteins Made? Transcription & Translation — Cognito
• How is DNA turned into protein? The Central Dogma of Molecular Biology — yourgenome
• DNA words are three letters long — DNA from the Beginning

① From gene to message: the central dogma and transcription

Chapter 14, Section “Name the flow: the central dogma” · Session 1, Segment 1, “The flow: the central dogma” · Remember: the message is written in the nucleus and read at a ribosome in the cytoplasm, in that order.

• How is DNA turned into protein? The Central Dogma of Molecular Biology — yourgenome — a short explainer from a genomics education site on gene expression as two stages, transcription in the nucleus and translation at the ribosomes; its last section on exceptions to the rule reaches past this course, so read it as a curiosity. Use it while working through the Week-14 module overview. (reading, 2–4 min)
• Transcription and Translation — Bozeman Science — a steady walk from gene to mRNA to protein that ends by decoding a short gene with a codon chart; pause before each decoding step and do it yourself first. (video, 12 min) (captions: creator)
• How are Proteins Made? Transcription & Translation — Cognito — a clear animated overview of why the cell sends a copy of a gene out of the nucleus, how mRNA differs from DNA, and how the ribosome and tRNA build the chain; this builds on Week 13's work with complementary base pairing. (video, 11 min) (captions: automatic)

② Reading the code in threes

Chapter 14, Section “Read the genetic code” · Session 1, Segment 4, “Reading the code” · Remember: start at AUG, read three bases at a time, and stop at UAA, UAG, or UGA.

• DNA words are three letters long — DNA from the Beginning — a short concept page on why the code needed three-letter words to cover 20 amino acids and how researchers matched codons to amino acids; open its animation tab to watch a message being read. (reading, 3–5 min)
• How To Read Codon Tables — Science with Hazel — a careful demonstration of finding an amino acid in a codon table from the first, second, and third base of an mRNA codon; practice on the chapter's table as you watch. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)

③ Translation at the ribosome

Chapter 14, Section “Translate the message” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Reading the message: translation” · Remember: the codon is on the mRNA, and the anticodon is on the tRNA that brings the amino acid.

• Molecule of the Month: Transfer RNA — PDB-101 — a protein-structure site's portrait of tRNA as the adapter between codons and amino acids, with the anticodon at one end and the amino acid at the other; read the opening and the structure section, and skip the error rates and special cases. (reading, 5–8 min)
• From DNA to protein - 3D — yourgenome — a short 3D animation of transcription and translation inside a cell; watch it twice, once for the order and once to name where each step happens. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)
• Transcription and Translation - Protein Synthesis From DNA - Biology — The Organic Chemistry Tutor — a whiteboard walk-through of both steps with codons and anticodons written out; it adds splicing and the ribosome's three sites, which this course does not test, so let those parts go by. (video, 11 min) (captions: automatic)

④ One letter that matters

Chapter 14, Section “See why one letter matters: the sickle-cell codon” · Session 2, Segment 8, “One letter that matters: the sickle-cell codon” · Remember: GAG codes for glutamic acid and GUG for valine, so one changed base changes one amino acid.

• How does a mutation in DNA cause a disease like sickle cell anemia? — The Tech Interactive — a science museum's ask-a-geneticist answer that follows one changed letter in the hemoglobin gene to a changed red blood cell; it writes the codon in DNA letters, so turn its T into U for the mRNA. Stop before the part on carriers and malaria; next week takes up mutation. (reading, 4–6 min)
• Codons, Degeneracy, and Sickle Cell — Revision Village — an exam-review video that reads a codon chart, shows why several codons can share one amino acid, and ends on the sickle-cell change; it calls redundancy degeneracy, which means the same thing. (video, 10 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

• Codon — National Human Genome Research Institute Talking Glossary — the course's free glossary of genetic terms, open at its entry on the codon; read the short definition and treat the narration as optional. (reading, 1–2 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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