Term used in genetics. Transfer RNAs (tTNA) are short, highly specialized ribonucleic acids (RNA) that are produced by transcription. tRNAs generally consist of 73 to 95 nucleotides. The sole function of the tRNA molecules is to transport the amino acids to the ribosomes so that they can be assembled into polypeptides. The tRNA is structured in a cloverleaf shape.
The two most important elements of tRNA are:
- Anticodon: Sequence with three bases on a loop of each tRNA. The anticodon is complementary to a codon on the mRNA
- Acceptor arm: This is the single-stranded end of the tRNA. The amino acid corresponding to the codon binds here. This site is also known as the amino acid recognition site.