What is the purpose of translation?

• A. To make a protein chain (out of amino acids)
• B. To replicate DNA
• C. To transcribe RNA
• D. To modify proteins after translation

Answer: (A)

Translation is the process that turns the message in messenger RNA into a protein by assembling amino acids into a polypeptide chain at the ribosome. It reads each mRNA codon and matches it with the corresponding amino acid carried by tRNA, building the protein one amino acid at a time. That makes the purpose of translation to create a protein chain from amino acids. The other options describe different steps: duplicating the DNA (DNA replication), making RNA from DNA (transcription), or altering a protein after it’s made (post-translational modification).