transfer RNA

noun

ˈtran(t)s-ˌfər- 

: a relatively small RNA that transfers a particular amino acid to a growing polypeptide chain at the ribosomal site of protein synthesis during translation

called also tRNA

compare messenger rna

Examples of transfer RNA in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For instance, only a few years after Francis Crick, James Watson and several of their colleagues deduced the structure of DNA, researchers found that some RNA, called transfer RNA, grabs onto amino acids that eventually get strung together into proteins. —Philip Ball, Scientific American, 14 May 2024

Still other types of ncRNAs, called small nucleolar RNAs, work within cell compartments called nucleoli to help modify the RNA in ribosomes—a cell’s protein-making factories—as well as transfer RNA and mRNA. —Philip Ball, Scientific American, 14 May 2024

Sutherland and his group had previously shown that analogs of right-handed transfer RNA molecules — which bind amino acids and bring them to the ribosome to make proteins — link to left-handed amino acids 10 times faster than to right-handed ones. —Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 6 Sep. 2023

Okay, so tRNA is short for transfer RNA. —Quanta Magazine, 1 June 2022

Then an undergraduate at Duke, Church typed into a computer all the transfer RNA sequences that were available at the time and folded each one into a three-dimensional structure, as RNA molecules were known to do. —Ed Regis, Discover Magazine, 24 June 2010

Founded in 2018, Alltrna (pronounced All-terna) aims to understand a molecule known as transfer RNA to try to treat a broad range of genetic diseases. —BostonGlobe.com, 9 Nov. 2021

The assortment included transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules, which are important for ferrying the amino-acid building blocks of proteins to the ribosomes. —Roxanne Khamsi, Scientific American, 17 June 2020

For example, most viruses lack aminoacyl tRNA synthetase enzymes, which shuttle amino acids onto transfer RNA molecules; these in turn make their way to the ribosome, dropping off their cargo to build proteins from the chains of amino acids. —Jeffrey Marlow, Discover Magazine, 20 Apr. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1961, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

transfer RNA

noun

ˈtran(t)s-ˌfər- 

: a relatively small RNA molecule that functions in the transfer of a particular amino acid to a growing protein at the site of protein synthesis during genetic translation compare messenger rna

Medical Definition

transfer RNA

noun

: a relatively small RNA that transfers a particular amino acid to a growing polypeptide chain at the ribosomal site of protein synthesis during translation

called also adapter RNA, soluble RNA, tRNA

compare messenger rna