During protein synthesis, or translation, genetic information transcribed in the cell’s mRNA directs the stringing together of amino acids—the building blocks of proteins. As the translation machinery carouses along the string of nucleotides that make up the mRNA, it recognizes them in groups of three, called codons. Each codon corresponds to a specific amino acid. During protein synthesis, or translation, genetic information transcribed in the cell’s mRNA directs the stringing together of amino acids—the building blocks of proteins. As the translation machinery carouses along the string of nucleotides that make up the mRNA, it recognizes them in groups of three, called codons. Each codon corresponds to a specific amino acid. Cell & Microbiology Molecular & Computational biology Phys.org – latest science and technology news stories