Figure 2.

Chemical damage to RNA could affect multiple steps of translation. At the center is a schematic highlighting a eukaryotic mRNA being translated. Damage might alter the structure of the rRNA, the tRNA, and the mRNA. On the rRNA, modifications could affect important functional sites of the ribosome. Shown are the PTC, the GTPase activation center (GAC), and the decoding center (DC). On the tRNA, modifications to the anticodon and acceptor stem, for example, could affect decoding and aminoacylation, respectively. On the mRNA, modifications to the coding sequence could affect the speed and accuracy of translation during elongation.