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Medical Definition of Signal recognition particle
1. A complex between a 7S RNA and six proteins. SRP binds to the nascent polypeptide chain of eukaryotic proteins with a signal sequence and halts further translation until the ribosome becomes associated with the rough endoplasmic reticulum. One of the SRP proteins (srp54) binds GTP and in association with 7SRNA and srp19 has GTPase activity. This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)