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One day as Carl was walking along by the reef, he 

spotted a school of fish. The fish looked friendly so Carl 

said "Hi I'm Carl, what are your names?" 

The fish all said together, "We are the DNA school of 

fish. The red fish are named A. The orange fish are 

named T. The green fish are named G. And lastly the 

yellow fish are named C".

Carl was a very smart crab and he noticed the fish were 

all swimming in pairs. He asked why the swam in pairs. 

The fish replied "The A fish swim in a pair with the T fish 

and the G fish swim in a pair with the C fish   because 

they are bonded together."  

Suddenly, the big bad helicase shark swooped in and 

started splitting the pairs of fish! Carl yelled out "Help! 

This helicase shark is attacking the fish!".

The fish said, "Carl calm down this happens all the time 

and it needs to be done in order to create the 

Polypeptide Castle."

Carl replied, "What's the Polypeptide Castle?" 

The fish answered, "Just keep watching. You will see."

After the fish had been split, more fish came and paired 

up with their matching fish: the A fish with the T fish 

and the C fish with the G fish. These new fish were put 

together by the DNA Polymerase Seahorses. The 

seahorses brought in the new rows of fish to pair up 

with the original rows.

Now take a second to understand the very 

important concept of the reef. All of this is going on 

inside the reef so the DNA is not damaged. Another 

important concept here is that the 2 new DNA 

strands are built by DNA Polymerase. 

Half of the fish then started to swim off to another part 

of the reef. Carl asked the fish that stayed, "Where are 

they going?"

The fish answered, "They are going off to the RNA 

Polymerase Mermaid." 

Carl asked, "Why do you guys stay here?" The fish 

answered, "Because if we go outside into the big ocean, 

we could get hurt and never replicate again. We are the 

most important fish because we have the original plans 

for the   Polypeptide Castle. So, if we get hurt, we won't 

be able to build it."

Carl followed the school of fish to the RNA Polymerase 

Mermaid. 

"What are you doing?" asked Carl. 

The Mermaid replied, "This is called transcription. I am 

transcribing the DNA school of fish and changing them 

to a messenger RNA school of fish. They will carry the 

pattern to the Ribosome Octopus." 

Carl asked again, "Why?"

The fish answered him, "Just wait Carl, and you will 

see."

Carl saw that after being transcribed by the RNA Polymerase 

Mermaid, the DNA school fish had changed. The school to 

his right was the original school and school to his left was 

the new school. 

The Mermaid said, "See now this new school of fish is called 

a messenger RNA school of fish."

Carl noticed that this messenger RNA school did not have 

fish paired up with them. He also noticed that the 

messenger RNA school were the opposite colors of the top 

line of fish in the DNA school, the part that was translated. 

The only difference was that all the orange fish had been 

changed to blue fish. 

The blue fish said, "We are called U fish, there are no T fish 

in messenger RNA schools." 

In review, the Mermaid is RNA polymerase, which 

transcribes the the DNA strand that can be used for 

mRNA. 

Carl continued to follow the messenger RNA fish on 

their journey. They finally reached the Ribosome 

Octopus.

The Ribosome Octopus introduced himself to Carl: "Hi, 

I'm the Ribosome Octopus.   I am made of Ribosome 

RNA and other proteins. I help transcribe messenger 

RNA and build Polypeptide Chains of pebbles."

Carl responded, "Hi, I'm Carl the Crab."

The octopus started explaining to Carl what was going 

on: "Each set of 3 fish is called a codon. Each of the big 

fish you see above the messenger RNA has 3 little 

scales on its stomach called an anti-codon. These big 

fish are called transfer RNA fish" He continued, " I will 

call over the fish with the correct anti-codon and he will 

drop off his amino acid pebble. Then the pebbles with 

attach to each other and form a Polypeptide Chain of 

pebbles.   These chains with come together to build the 

Polypeptide Castle!"

The Ribosome Octopus said, "See Carl. This transfer 

RNA fish has the anti-codon G,A,G, to match the codon 

of C,U,C (yellow fish, blue fish, yellow fish). Each 

transfer RNA fish carries a certain pebble for the 

polypeptide castle. And each different combination of 

fish calls for a different transfer RNA fish. When the 

anti-codon matches the codon of the fish it drops its 

pebble."

Carl answered, "Ahhh everything is starting to make 

sense now!"

In recap there is an anti-codon that matches each 

codon perfectly. This is how a polypeptide chain is 

built exactly correct every time unless there is a 

mutation. Also each tRNA fish has an amino acid to 

help build the polypeptide.

The process continued and Carl noticed that the castle 

was beginning to take shape.

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