In molecular biology, a reading frame is a way of dividing the sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) molecule into a set of consecutive, non-overlapping triplets. Where these triplets equate to amino acids or stop signals during translation, they are called codons.
A single strand of a nucleic acid molecule has a phosphoryl end, (called the 5′-end) and a hydroxyl, or (3′-end). These then define the 5'→3' direction. There are three reading frames that can be read in this 5'→3' direction, each beginning from a different nucleotide in a triplet. In a double stranded nucleic acid, an additional three reading frames may be read from the other, complementary strand in the 5'→3' direction along this strand. As the two strands of a double stranded nucleic acid molecule are antiparallel, the 5'→3' direction on the second strand corresponds to the 3'→5' direction along the first strand.
In general, at most one reading frame in a given section of a nucleic acid is biologically relevant.
Read more about Reading Frame: Transcription, Translation, Multiple Reading Frames, Open Reading Frame
Famous quotes containing the words reading and/or frame:
“Much reading has brought upon us a learned barbarism.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“she drew back a while,
Then, yielding to the irresistible joy,
With frantic gesture and short breathless cry
Folded his frame in her dissolving arms.
Now blackness veiled his dizzy eyes, and night
Involved and swallowed up the vision; sleep,
Like a dark flood suspended in its course,
Rolled back its impulse on his vacant brain.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)