Protein biosynthesis (synthesis) is when cells build proteins. The term is sometimes used to refer only to protein translation but more often it refers to a multi-step process.

Amino acids are either synthesised or eaten in food. Then, after the transcription of polypeptide genes, the amino acids are put together. This is done by translation and RNA splicing which produces messenger RNAs. The splicing process produces the final proteins, which then fold up into their protein structure. Then they can function. The plural is used here because, with most genes, the splicing process produces more than one final working protein. One particular Drosophila gene (DSCAM) can be alternatively spliced into 38,000 different mRNA.^[1]

Protein biosynthesis differs between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, though parts of the process are the same in both.

• Science aid: protein synthesis Archived 2007-02-12 at the Wayback Machine For high school
• Protein synthesis
• Transcription Archived 2006-12-14 at the Wayback Machine

  Translation Archived 2006-12-14 at the Wayback Machine

• Protein synthesis animation Archived 2007-10-21 at the Wayback Machine Wesleyan University Learning Objects animation of protein synthesis.
• Interactive Java simulation of transcription initiation. Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine From Center for Models of Life Archived 2011-08-09 at the Wayback Machine at the Niels Bohr Institute.