Car assembly analogy
Consider the manufacture of a vehicle. One factory can produce many different cars which have different characteristics and functions. The plans dictate what vehicle is to be built and how to build it.
Many people work on the assembly line. All have specialist functions. Some have the job of finding and fitting windscreens others get the doors and fit them while still others assemble the wheels and so on.
Workers who find and fit, say, the windscreens can not obtain and fit the doors. Workers are highly specialized and do specific tasks.
Lets pretend for one moment that the factory is the ribosome. Here parts are assembled into large functional units. In the case of the cell amino acids are assembled into functional proteins while at the factory many different parts are assembled into functional vehicles.
The factory can produce many different types of vehicles as can the ribosome produce many different types of proteins. Both vehicles and proteins are assembled according to meticulous and precise instructions. These instructions are housed in secure libraries as is the DNA housed in the nucleus. Copies of the assembly manual are sent to the assembly line in much the same way as mRNA(a copy of the DNA code) is sent to the ribosome.
At the assembly line the plans are clearly read and parts sourced and assembled by specialized workers. The tRNA plays the part of the specialized workers, finding specific amino acids in the cytoplasm and bringing them to the ribosome for assembly onto the protein chain. Each tRNA is responsible for only one amino acid as are the specialized workers responsible for only one part of the vehicle.
Match the words on the right with those on the left according to similar functions.
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Library
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Original
assembly manual
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Copy
of the assembly manual
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Specialized
assembly line workers
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Vehicle
parts
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Vehicle
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Factory
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