Directionality, in molecular biology and biochemistry, is the end-to-end chemical orientation of a single strand of nucleic acid. In a single strand of DNA or RNA, the chemical convention of naming carbon atoms in the nucleotide sugar-ring means that there will be a 5′-end, which frequently contains a phosphate group attached to the 5′ carbon of the ribose ring, and a 3′-end (usually pronounced "five prime end" and "three prime end"), which typically is unmodified from the ribose -OH substituent. In a DNA double helix, the strands run in opposite directions to permit base pairing between them,...

In molecular biology and genetics, translation is the process in which cellular ribosomes create proteins. In translation, messenger RNA (mRNA)—produced by transcription from DNA—is decoded by a ribosome to produce a specific amino acid chain, or polypeptide. The polypeptide later folds into an active protein and performs its functions in the cell. The ribosome facilitates decoding by inducing the binding of complementary tRNA anticodon sequences to mRNA codons. The tRNAs carry specific amino acids that are chained together into a polypeptide as the mRNA passes through and is "read" by the ribosome...