A. Controlling the rates of transcription and translation is important in bacteria to avoid collisions between ribosomes and RNA polymerases. Calculate what the maximum rate of translation by a ribosome in a bacterial cell would have to be, in units of amino acids per second, so as not to overtake an RNA polymerase that is transcribing mRNA at a rate of 60 nucleotides per second. b. How long would it take for this bacterial cell to translate an mRNA containing 1800 codons?

The rate will be 20aminoacids per second and it would take 80 seconds to translate.

Explanation: Translation is the process where mRNA is transformed into a polypeptide. This happens when a ribossome converts 3 nucleotides to 1 aminoacid. For this cell, as the rate is 60 nucleotides per second:

3 nucleotides - 1 aminoacid

60 nucleotides - 60/3 = 20 aminocids

The maximum rate of translation will be 20aminoacids per second.

A codon is a sequence of 3 nucleotides. 1800 codos has 5400 nucleotides.

If the rate is 60 nucleotides per second:

5400/60 = 80s

It would take 80 seconds to translate that piece of mRNA.

b is the correct answer