You might have noticed that when you scrape your knee or elbow, after a few weeks, your skin looks good as new. Or you might be wondering how your body grows and the role that DNA plays in it. Each and every cell in your body has DNA. So how does your body get DNA to be in every new cell it makes? This is where DNA Replication comes into play.

The first step in this process is called transcription. Before anything begins however, the DNA, which is wrapped in a tight coil, unfurls. This is where the nitrogenous bases are copied and the ‘data’ is stored. How does this happen? Well, the first step of this process is to ‘unzip’ the double stranded DNA. This is done by an enzyme called helicase. The split strands that are being copied that will be glued later are known as okazaki fragments. These strands are templates so that the next enzyme, primase, can get the strand ready to synthesize the protein. RNA(Ribonucleic Acid) Polymerase then starts to fill in the blanks by making copies. Since the original strand is unzipped, it attaches the correct purine or pyrimidine that fits. For example, if one half has a G, the RNA polymerase will attach a Cytosine to it. This is done along the chain until the end. The next and last enzyme to work on this process is ligase, which just glues everything back together. It is important to note that since RNA polymerase is the one adding the new nitrogenous bases, the 4 bases are A,U,C, and G. U stands for Uracil, and pairs with Adenine. 

The next process is translation, which is fairly simple. After transcription, we are left with a chain consisting of the 4 bases A,U,C, and G. In translation, groups for 3 bases, known as codons, are translated to different polypeptides, which is just a protein.

Looking at the image below, we can see that the first codon in this sequence is AUG, which codes for Met, or Methionine. AUG is the most common starting codon. You can also see that there is a stop codon in the image. There are 3 stop codons:UAG, UAA, and UGA. Whenever these codons are seen, no more polypeptides are added.