Question

Explain why it was suggested that codon is a sequence of three consecutive nucleotides on m-RNA.

Answer 1

1. If each codon has only one nucleotide, then there will be 4 = 4 codons, which can encode for only four different types of amino acids. 

2. If each codon has two nucleotides, then there will be 4² = 16 codons, which can encode for only 16 different types of amino acids. 

3. If each codon has three nucleotides, then there will be 4³ = 64 codons, which are sufficient to specify 20 different types of amino acids.