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The genetic code states which codon (group of three adjacent nucleotides) represents which amino acid.

The code is almost universal. This means that the same codon holds the code for the same amino acid in almost all animals, plants, algae, fungi, and bacteria. This in turn means that if scientists insert a coding segment of human DNA into a bacterial plasmid, the bacteria will synthesize the same chain of amino acids that a human cell does using that gene. This universality of the code is essential for recombinant DNA technology.

To see the full code, visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_code#RNA_codon_table

(The table on the above Wikipedia page lists the messenger RNA version of the code.)

Why only "almost" universal? Well, some DNA uses a slightly different code, differing by a few codons. Mitochondria, in particular, show some differences from the standardgenetic code (the one used in our chromosomes).

In the standard code, three of the 64 possible codons represent a STOP signal. The other 61 between them code for 20 amino acids (some amino acids are encoded by more than one alternate codon). One of these 61 codons also acts under certain circumstances as the START signal.

A protein consists of one or more polypeptides (chains of amino acids). The one genetic code is used in nuclear DNA to represent the amino acid sequences of all proteins found in organisms (excepting the proteins encoded by mitochondria and a relatively small number of simple organisms with slightly different codes).

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