Protein synthesis begins when the gene encoding a protein is activated. The gene’ s sequence of nucleotides is transcribed into

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问题     Protein synthesis begins when the gene encoding a protein is activated. The gene’ s sequence of nucleotides is transcribed into a molecule of messenger RNA(mRNA), which reproduces the information contained in that sequence. Transported outside the nucleus to the cytoplasm, the mRNA is translated into the protein it encodes by an organelle known as a ribosome, which strings together amino acids in the order specified by the sequence of elements in the mRNA molecule. Since the amount of mRNA in a cell determines the amount of the corresponding protein, factors affecting the abundance of mRNA’ s play a major part in the normal functioning of a cell by appropriately regulating protein synthesis. For example, an excess of certain proteins can cause cells to proliferate abnormally and become cancerous; a lack of the protein insulin results in diabetes.
    Biologists once assumed that the variable rates at which cells synthesize different mRNA’ s determine the quantities of mRNA’s and their corresponding proteins in a cell. However, recent investigations have shown that the con- centrations of most mRNA’ s correlate best, not with their synthesis rate, but rather with the equally variable rates at which cells degrade the different mRNA’ s in their cytoplasm. If a cell de- grades both a rapidly and a slowly synthesized mRNA slowly, both mRNA’ s will accumulate to high levels.
    An important example of this phenomenon is the development of red blood cells from their unspecialized parent cells in bone marrow. For red blood cells to accumulate sufficient concentrations of hemoglobin(which transports oxygen) to carry out their main function, the cells’ parent cells must simultaneously produce more of the constituent proteins of hemoglobin and less of most other proteins. To do this, the parent cells halt synthesis of non- hemoglobin mRNA’s in the nucleus and rapidly degrade copies of the non-hemoglobin mRNA’s remaining in the cytoplasm. Halting synthesis of mRNA alone would not affect the quantities of proteins synthesized by the mRNA’ s still existing in the cytoplasm. Biologists now believe that most cells can regulate protein production most efficiently by varying both mRNA synthesis and degradation, as developing red cells do, rather than by just varying one or the other.
The passage is primarily concerned with discussing the

选项 A、influence of mRNA concentrations on the development of red blood cells.
B、role of the synthesis and degradation of mRNA in cell functioning.
C、mechanism by which genes are transcribed into mRNA.
D、differences in mRNA concentrations in cell nuclei and in the cytoplasm.
E、way in which mRNA synthesis contributes to the onset of diabetes.

答案B

解析 主题题型:A.mRNA在红细胞中的影响。太偏,这只是文中一个例子。B.正确。本文中的议题即此:mRNA合成和降解的作用。C.基因转入mRNA的机制。只是一开始几句话的内容。D.mRNA浓度在细胞质和细胞核中的区别。无。E.mRNA的合成对糖尿病的影响。这是一个细节。
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