Which term describes the building of proteins at a ribosome, guided by mRNA?

The process of building proteins at a ribosome, using messenger RNA (mRNA) as a template, is known as translation. During translation, the ribosome reads the sequence of codons in mRNA, which are sets of three nucleotides that correspond to specific amino acids. Transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules, each carrying an amino acid, recognize the codons through their anticodons and bring the appropriate amino acids to the ribosome. This assembly of amino acids continues until a stop codon is reached, resulting in a completed polypeptide chain that will fold into a functional protein.

Other processes, such as transcription, involve the synthesis of mRNA from a DNA template, while replication refers to the duplication of DNA itself. Duplication typically refers to a general process of making copies of molecules or structures and is not specifically tied to protein synthesis. Thus, translation is the correct term that specifically denotes the protein-building process occurring at the ribosome with mRNA guidance.