This book was created and published on StoryJumper™

©2010 StoryJumper, Inc.   All rights reserved.

Publish your own children's book: 

www.storyjumper.com

The DNA fairies liked to be in groups of three called 

nucleotides. The fairies in the yellow dresses are 

Nitrogenous base fairies, the fairies in the red 

dresses are Deoxyribose Sugar fairies, and the 

fairies in the blue dresses are phosphate fairies. 

One day some RNA fairies broke into the nucleus where 

the fairies lived. They were jealous that the DNA fairies 

could have two clothing racks while they could only have 

one. The Helicase fairy broke into the closets of the 

Nitrogenous base fairies and split the two halves of their 

closets. Then the DNA Polymerase paired the old halves 

of the clothing rack with new complementary halves. 

This process is called DNA replication.

Then RNA polymerase, the master of transcription, 

made a copy of one half of the DNA's clothing. He 

had the right materials to copy their adenine, 

guanine, and cytosine dresses, but not their 

thymine dress, so a similar uracil dress instead. 

Then they sneakily returned the DNA fairies' 

dresses, and they had no idea what would happen 

next.

Checkpoint

1. How are the structures of DNA and RNA 

similar and different? 

Answer: There are two strands of DNA that 

make a double helix and only one strand of 

RNA. They also both have cytosine, guanine, 

and adenine nitrogenous bases but DNA has a 

thymine base while RNA has a uracil base.

2. How does DNA replication occur and what 

enzymes are involved? Why is DNA replication 

necessary?

Answer: The enzymes involved are DNA 

polymerase and helicase. The helicase breaks 

the bonds between strands of DNA and the 

DNA Polymerase pairs the old strands with 

new ones. It is necessary because it is needed 

to make new cells.

Checkpoint continued

3. Describe process of transcription. Where 

does it occur?

Answer: This process occurs in the 

nucleus. RNA polymerase bonds bases 

from one DNA strand to their 

complementary one, therefore making a 

strand on mRNA. The only difference is 

that thymine is replaced with uracil.

Polypeptide Chains

The RNA fairies then put their copied dresses into groups of 

three called codons and put them on a rack called mRNA. 

The rack of clothing was sent out to the cytoplasm to a 

ribosome that is in Endoplasmic Reticulum. Ribosome called 

up his friend tRNA to make shoes in groups of three called 

Anti-codons. Each group of shoes matched a specific group 

of dresses. Ribosome's brother rRNA lived with him and 

helped to figure out which ones went together. The three 

pairs of shoes and their matching dresses made mini 

clothing lines called Amino acids. Then the Amino Acids 

were put together to make large clothing lines called 

Polypeptide chains. The clothing lines were then sent to the 

Golgi Apparatus where it was packaged into a protein and 

then sent to the cell membrane to perform its function. 

Checkpoint:

4. Why isn't DNA used directly for the 

translation of protein instead of RNA? How are 

the DNA and RNA functions different?

 DNA isn't used for the translation of protein so 

that everything is in place and the DNA does not 

belong in the cytoplasm or outside the nucleus. 

DNA stores the genetic information and the RNA 

transfers the information to create proteins from 

the nucleus to the ribosomes.

Checkpoint:

5. Describe the role of mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA 

in translation.

The mRNA carries the message of what is to 

be created (dictated by the DNA) into the 

cytoplasm. tRNA then creates the 

complementary pairs of this RNA called anti-

codons. After that, rRNA takes the information 

and uses it to create a protein.

Sometimes, people can forget to put in parts of 

the dresses, put in something extra, put the 

wrong type of thing (color, etc.), or change 

something small in design (deletion, insertion, 

substitution, and point mutation).

Changing this can majorly mess up the 

dresses.   Sometimes, everything can be off, 

changing a small white dress to a large fancy 

dress (frameshift).

Sometimes, there can be a slight change in 

one aspect of the dress such as color 

(missense mutation).

You've previewed 22 of 34 pages.

To read more: