Chapter 13.4, Problem 3C

A certain mRNA strand has the following nucleotide sequence:

$5^{\prime }—\text{AUG}—\text{ACG}—\text{UAU}—\text{AAC}—\text{UUU}—3^{\prime }$

What is the anticodon for each codon? What is the amino acid sequence of the polypeptide? (Use Figure 13-5 to help answer this question.)

Figure 13-5 The genetic code

The genetic code specifies all possible combinations of the three bases that compose codons in mRNA. Of the 64 possible codons, 61 specify amino acids (see Figure 3-17 for an explanation of abbreviations). The codon AUG specifies the amino acid methionine and also signals the ribosome to initiate translation (“start”). Three codons—UAA, UGA, and UAG—do not specify amino acids; they terminate polypeptide synthesis (“stop”).