Labster Protein Synthesis Practice Exam

Translation is the process that decodes the information in mRNA to build a protein, and it happens on ribosomes, the molecular machines that link amino acids together to form polypeptide chains. The nucleolus is where ribosomal RNA is made and ribosome subunits assemble, not where proteins are synthesized, so translation does not occur there. Lipids cannot serve as templates for protein synthesis—the template is the nucleotide sequence of mRNA that specifies the order of amino acids. Translation does occur in the cytoplasm, on ribosomes (either free in the cytosol or attached to the rough endoplasmic reticulum in a eukaryotic cell). So the statement that translation occurs on ribosomes is true.