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In biology
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
, a reading frame is a contiguous and non-overlapping set of three-nucleotide
Nucleotide

Nucleotides are molecules that comprise the structural units of RNA and DNA. Additionally, nucleotides play central roles in metabolism. In that capacity, they serve as sources of chemical energy , participate in cell signaling , and are incorporated into important cofactors of enzymatic reactions ....
 codons in DNA
DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetics instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses....
 or RNA
RNA

Ribonucleic acid is a type of molecule that consists of a long chain of nucleotide units. Each nucleotide consists of a nucleobase, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate....
. There are 3 possible reading frames in an mRNA strand and six in a double stranded DNA
DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetics instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses....
 molecule due to the two strands from which transcription is possible. This leads to the possibility of overlapping gene
Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
s and there may be many of these in bacteria. Some viruses e.g. HBV and BYDV use several overlapping genes in different reading frames.

In rare cases a translating ribosome
Ribosome

Ribosomes are complexes of RNA and protein that are found in all cell s. Ribosomes from bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes, the three domains of life on Earth, have significantly different structure and RNA....
 may shift from one frame to another, a translational frameshift
Translational frameshift

Translational frameshifting or ribosomal frameshifting refers to an alternate process of protein translation. Normally, a protein is translated from one end of the template to the other, generally from the 3' to the 5' end ....
.






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In biology
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
, a reading frame is a contiguous and non-overlapping set of three-nucleotide
Nucleotide

Nucleotides are molecules that comprise the structural units of RNA and DNA. Additionally, nucleotides play central roles in metabolism. In that capacity, they serve as sources of chemical energy , participate in cell signaling , and are incorporated into important cofactors of enzymatic reactions ....
 codons in DNA
DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetics instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses....
 or RNA
RNA

Ribonucleic acid is a type of molecule that consists of a long chain of nucleotide units. Each nucleotide consists of a nucleobase, a ribose sugar, and a phosphate....
. There are 3 possible reading frames in an mRNA strand and six in a double stranded DNA
DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetics instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses....
 molecule due to the two strands from which transcription is possible. This leads to the possibility of overlapping gene
Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
s and there may be many of these in bacteria. Some viruses e.g. HBV and BYDV use several overlapping genes in different reading frames.

In rare cases a translating ribosome
Ribosome

Ribosomes are complexes of RNA and protein that are found in all cell s. Ribosomes from bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes, the three domains of life on Earth, have significantly different structure and RNA....
 may shift from one frame to another, a translational frameshift
Translational frameshift

Translational frameshifting or ribosomal frameshifting refers to an alternate process of protein translation. Normally, a protein is translated from one end of the template to the other, generally from the 3' to the 5' end ....
. It is distinct from a frameshift mutation
Frameshift mutation

A frameshift mutation genetics mutation caused by indels, ie. gene insertion or genetic deletion of a number of nucleotides that is not evenly divisible by three from a DNA sequence....
 as the nucleotide sequence (DNA or RNA) is not altered only the frame in which it is read.

An open reading frame
Open reading frame

An open reading frame is a portion of an organism's genome which contains a sequence of base pair that could potentially translation a protein....
 (ORF) is a reading frame that contains a start codon
Start codon

ATG and AUG denote sequences of DNA and RNA respectively that are the start codon or initiation codon encoding the amino acid methionine in eukaryotes and a modified Met in prokaryotes....
, the subsequent region which usually has a length which is a multiple of 3 nucleotides, and end with a stop codon
Stop codon

In the genetic code, a stop codon is a nucleotide triplet within messenger RNA that signals a termination of translation. Proteins are unique sequences of amino acids, and most codons in messenger RNA correspond to the addition of an amino acid to a growing protein chain — stop codons signal the termination of this process, releasing t...
.

See also

  • Genetic code
    Genetic code

    The genetic code is the set of rules by which information encoded in genetic material is Translation into proteins by living cell s. The code defines a mapping between tri-nucleotide sequences, called codons, and amino acids....