A complex organic compound (a nucleic acid) in living cells that is concerned with protein synthesis. In some viruses, RNA is also the hereditary material. Most RNA is synthesized in the nucleus and then distributed to various parts of the cytoplasm. An RNA molecule consists of a long chain of nucleotides in which the sugar is ribose and the bases are adenine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil.
There are three main types of RNA:
For protein synthesis to take place, the coding information in DNA is transferred to complementary mRNA, which carries it to the ribosome, a body consisting of rRNA. Here the coding information is translated into the sequence of amino acids in a protein, each amino acid having been transferred to the ribosome and matched to a codon on mRNA by tRNA. The amino acids are joined together to form protein chains by tRNA. See also genetic code.