mRNA vs Protein Sizes

mRNA is larger than the proteins it creates , based on Laura Deming’s thought experiment video and bio by the numbers.

Some key ideas are:

• amino acids and nucleotide bases are similar in size (on the order of a few atoms each). However, it takes 3 RNA nucleotides to encode a single amino acid during peptide encoding - so by mass, the RNA is 3 times heavier.
• Proteins fold significantly. Here is a table of different protein sizes.

Laura Deming points out that DNA will also have significant introns, and that inspecting a cell can show a large amount of cell volume dedicated to nucleic acid.