The cell synthesizes proteins by first storing an astronomically unlikely sequence of nucleotides in the DNA gene which codes for the protein. Like a sentence from a Shakespeare play, the nucleotide sequence produces a beautiful result. The first step is to unwind, open, read and copy the gene in a process known as transcriptionwhich requires a small army of proteins. The copy, or transcript, is called messenger RNA and after some editing it is passed to the ribosome where the genetic code is used to construct the protein, one amino acid at a time, based on the messenger RNA nucleotide sequence. This process is known as translation. Next the newly synthesized train of amino acids neatly folds into a protein, often with the help of other proteins. Read more