The genetic code is the combination of 4 nitrogenous bases which allows the formation of 64 different combinations between them allowing a unique code.
What is the genetic code?
The genetic code can be defined as the relationship between the triplets (codons) found in mRNA and the amino acids found in a protein. Codons are triplets formed by the nitrogenous bases (A, U, C and G).
The genetic code has three main characteristics:
- Specificity: each codon will encode the same amino acid;
- Universality: Codon specificity is the same for any individual. The codon for the amino acid alanine, for example, is the same in a bacterium, a fungus, a plant, a fish, and a human.
- Degenerate/Redundancy: There are four nitrogenous bases that make up DNA and RNA. They are arranged in triplets, forming codons. Thus, there are 64 different codons that correspond to the twenty amino acids that make up proteins. Therefore, more than one codon corresponds to the same amino acid.
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