During processing certain features are added to the nascent mRNA. This section provides an animation and set of stills that cover the basic steps in mRNA processing.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Welcome to the Virtual Cell Animation Collection! This collection has been developed to introduce students to new concepts. By walking through the still images and movie included for each topic, …

The above animation is an embedded Flash movie of the mRNA processing procedure. Depending upon the speed of your internet connection and the bandwith usage of the site, this file (11.2 MB) may take …

Before mRNA can be used by ribosomes as a template for building proteins, it must first be processed. Key steps are the addition of a methylated cap and a polyadenylated tail.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The final step in processing pre-mRNA is the addition of a poly (A) tail to its 3' end. Clicking on each of the thumbnail images will bring up a larger, labeled version of the described scene.

The above animation is an embedded Windows Media movie of the transcription process. Depending upon the speed of your internet connection and the bandwith usage of the site, this file (19.6 MB) …

After being processing of the pre-mRNA is completed, the strand of mRNA is ready to be spliced. Splicing is the stage during which introns are removed from the strand, and the exons that remain …

The following animation will describe the process of RNA splicing--an important step in creating the mRNA that is involved in protein synthesis, via the process of translation.