Chapter 17, Problem 10TYU

Summary Introduction

To propose: An evolutionary explanation for the statement that most amino acids are coded by a similar set of codons.

Concept introduction:

The genetic information of DNA is based on the nucleotide base sequences. These sequences are transcribed into mRNA triplets and are called codons. Genetic code has 64 codons; thus, codon is a basic unit of the genetic code. Three codons are stop codons. There are 61 codons that code for 20 amino acids. The redundancy of a genetic code accounts for this.