Explain the role that ribosomes play in the synthesis of proteins.
The ribosomes are nonspecific devices, capable of helping with the synthesis of any protein the mRNA is coded to produce. Commonly, a single strand of mRNA will become associated with up to half a dozen ribosomes, forming a complex called a polyribosome. Each ribosome in the polyribosome reads the information passing through on the mRNA and helps assemble the polypeptide chains specified. Of each ribosome's two subunits, the smaller binds to the mRNA and the larger contains the enzymes that catalyze the peptide bonds between the amino acids being assembled. The ribosomes are partly composed of rRNA. Ribosomal RNA is synthesized from the DNA that makes up the nucleoli of the nucleus and serves to bind the mRNA to the ribosome during protein synthesis.
