Question

Suppose the Curiosity rover recently discovered a Martian life form during its mission in space. There were only 12 different amino acids identified in the Martian cells, as well as only 2 nucleotides (cytosine and guanine) making up the DNA and RNA in the Martian cells.

(A)If transcription and translation occur similarly to how they do on Earth, what is the minimum number of codon positions (minimum number of nucleotides per codon) that must be present in the Martian codons to specify all amino acids? Explain your answer.

(B) If there is one stop codon in the Martian genetic code, would you expect the genetic code to be degenerate? Explain why or why not.

please explain

Answer 1

A.

# bases = 2 (C and G)

# amino acids = 12

If codon is 1 base long, 2^1 = 2 amino acids will be formed.

If codon is 2 bases long, 2^2 = 4 amino acids will be formed.

If codon is 3 bases long, 2^3 = 8 amino acids will be formed.

If codon is 4 bases long, 2^4 = 16 amino acids will be formed.

So, codon will be 4 bases long to form 12 amino acids.

B. Yes the codon will be degenrate.

There are 12 amino acids + 1 stop codon and 16 combinations are possible which is more than the required number of combinations (12 + 1 = 13 combinations).

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