PCAT Review Questions - Pharmacy College

Answer: E, In translation, the first codon always codes for methionine. Methionine serves as a signal for translation to commence.

Key Takeaway: Translation is the process that creates protein by using mRNA as a template. Translation is always initiated by the start codon, which codes for methionine. Each codon is a three nucleotide sequence that codes for a specific amino acid. Each new amino acid is bound to the previous amino acid by a peptide bond. This process continues until one of three stop codons is encountered, and this ends the process and a new protein has been synthesized.