Ribosome
A tiny part of a cell that builds proteins by joining small building blocks together.
Last updated
Analogy
A worker on a factory line who assembles products from a recipe.
In practice
Cells that make lots of protein, like digestive gland cells, have many ribosomes.
Practice
Flashcards
- What do ribosomes make?Proteins.
Questions people ask
Where are ribosomes found in a cell?
Ribosomes float in the cytoplasm or sit on a network of membranes inside the cell. They are too small to see with a school light microscope. You need an electron microscope. Every living cell, including bacteria, contains ribosomes because every cell must make proteins.
How do ribosomes make proteins?
The nucleus sends out a copy of a gene's instructions. A ribosome reads this copy and joins amino acids together in the correct order, like threading beads onto a string by following a pattern. The finished chain folds into a protein with a particular shape and job.