IB Biology D1.2: Protein synthesis (first exams in 2025)

This lesson can be purchased as part of the IB Complete course bundle (first exams 2025) at a heavily discounted price, formed of 40 fully resourced lessons, end of topic exams and student checklists. It can be found here

This PowerPoint contains everything you need to teach the Theme/Unit D1.2 Protein synthesis in the new IB Biology specification.

YouTube video is a preview of the full resource (does not include all slides)

This Powerpoint consists of over 60 slides and contains the followings:

All the information the IB have included in the new spec.

• Clear diagrams
• Student friendly content
• Summary videos
• Student research tasks
• Clearly identified HL and SL content
• Student checklist
• Summary

The following content is included:

D1.2.1:Describe transcription as the synthesis of RNA using DNA as a template.
D1.2.2: Describe the use of hydrogen bonding and complementary base pairing in transcription and the replacement of thymine with uracil in RNA.
D1.2.3: Describe how DNA is used as a template for transcription, remains stable and unchanged.
D1.2.4: Explain the use of transcription and its control of gene expression.
D1.2.5: Describe translation as the use of the mRNA produced in transcription to synthesise polypeptides.
D1.2.6: Describe the roles of mRNA, ribosomes and tRNA in translation.
D1.2.7: Describe complementary base pairing between the codons on mRNA and the anticodons on tRNA.
D1.2.8: Explain the main features of degeneracy and universality of the genetic code.
D1.2.9: Deduce the sequence of amino acids from an mRNA strand using a table of mRNA codons.
D1.2.10: Describe the elongation process of translation.
D1.2.11: Describe how a point mutation can affect the polypeptide produced.
D1.2.12: Describe the directionality of transcription and translation as 5′ to 3′.
D1.2.13: Describe the role of the promoter in transcription and how the binding of transcription factors to the promoter initiate transcription.
D1.2.14: Explain the roles of non-coding regions of DNA.
D1.2.15: Explain post-transcriptional modification of mRNA in eukaryotes.
D1.2.16: Describe how alternative splicing can produce variants of a protein.
D1.2.17: Describe the initiation stage of translation.
D1.2.18: Describe the modification of polypeptides to their functional state using pre-proinsulin to insulin as an example.
D1.2.19: Describe the recycling of amino acids by proteasomes