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It's all maths.

Imagine I wanted to make a protein of only 3 amino acids.

I would have 20 possible amino acids from which to choose in the 1st position, 20 possible in the 2nd and 20 possible in the 3rd.

That's a total possible combination of 203 (20x20x20).

Imagine now I want to make a protein that is thousands of amino acids long. What are the possible combinations now? Staggering, huh!

Another way is to think of an amino acid as a letter of the alphabet and a protein like a long sentence, paragraph or more likely a whole page of text.

With only 26 letters in our alphabet there are seemingly infinite possible pages of text we could write.

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15y ago

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Related Questions

Are amino acids only represented by one codon?

No. Amino acids are not always represented by only one codon. Several may code for one amino acid.


What 3 codons do not carry amino acids?

There are three codons that do not code for any amino acids: the stop codons. These are TAG, TAA, and TGA (in DNA, not RNA).


How many codons specify the twenty types of amino acids?

There are 61 codons that specify the twenty types of amino acids, since multiple codons can code for the same amino acid due to the redundancy of the genetic code.


How many amino acids can a sequence of DNA bases code for?

20


What condons do not code for amino acids?

Stop codons (also known as nonsense codons) do not code for amino acids. These include UAG, UAA, and UGA. When a stop codon is encountered during translation, it signals the termination of protein synthesis.


Why are there more codons than amino acids in the genetic code?

There are more codons than amino acids in the genetic code because multiple codons can code for the same amino acid. This redundancy helps protect against errors in the genetic code and allows for greater flexibility in protein synthesis.


How many natural occurring amino acids does the genetic code allow for?

There are 64 possible triplets. At least one of the triplets needs to be a stop codon, so theoretically 63 different amino acids can be coded for. In practice, there's some redundancy, and in humans all codons are either stop codons or translate to one of twenty amino acids.


Why are there 64 codons but only 20 amino acids in the genetic code?

The genetic code has 64 codons because it is made up of combinations of 3 nucleotides, which can create 64 different combinations. However, there are only 20 amino acids in the genetic code because some amino acids can be coded for by more than one codon.


The triplet code means that 64 codons translate into only 20 amino acids. What are the additional 44 codons used for?

The triplet code means that 64 codons translate into only 20 amino acids. The additional 44 codons are not used for anything, but they are rather a redundancy in the code.


Why is the mRNA code for amino acids said to be redundant?

The code for creating amino acids is said to be redundant because some codons code for the same amino acid (i.e. there is redundancy because several codons have the same function). For example, the RNA codons AAA and AAG both code for the amino acid Lysine. The codons ACU, ACC, ACA and ACG all code for Threonine.


How many base amino acids are there?

There are 64 codons (3-base code) that represent 20 amino acids and 3 stop signals. Click on the related link to see a table of DNA codons and the amino acids for which they code.


How many codons would be needed if a bacterial protein contains 150 amino acids?

1. the start codon 2. 150 codons, 1 for each amino acid 3. the stop codon The total number of different codons is 64...if this question is asking about unique codons used the answer will depend on which amino acids are in the peptide.