Protein synthesis involves which two main stages?

Protein synthesis is a fundamental biological process that allows cells to produce proteins based on the genetic information encoded in DNA. The two main stages involved in this process are transcription and translation.

Transcription is the first step of protein synthesis, where the DNA sequence of a gene is copied into messenger RNA (mRNA). This takes place in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. During transcription, the enzyme RNA polymerase binds to a specific region of the DNA and synthesizes the mRNA strand, which serves as a template for the next stage.

Translation is the second stage, occurring in the cytoplasm where ribosomes read the sequence of the mRNA and synthesize the corresponding polypeptide chain, which will fold and modify into a functional protein. The ribosome facilitates the pairing of tRNA, which brings the appropriate amino acids, to the mRNA codons, thus effectively translating the genetic code into a protein.

This understanding highlights why the combination of transcription and translation is recognized as the core process of protein synthesis, making it the correct answer for this question. The other options, while related to genetic processes, do not accurately represent the stages of protein synthesis as they either include stages that are not directly involved (like replication or cell division) or involve