 The process of synthesizing a protein from an mRNA template is known as translation . The mRNA is loaded onto the ribosome and is read three nucleotides at a time by matching each codon to its base pairing anticodon located on a transfer RNA molecule , which carries the amino acid corresponding to the codon it recognizes . The enzyme aminoacyl tRNA synthetase " charges " the tRNA molecules with the correct amino acids . The growing polypeptide is often termed the nascent chain . Proteins are always biosynthesized from N @-@ terminus to C @-@ terminus . 
