Protein Synthesis Flashcards
How are mutations caused?
when sequences of bases are not matched exactly, and an incorrect sequence may occur in newly-copied strand
What is triplet code?
the instructuions that DNA carries are contained in the sequence of bases along the chain of nucleotides that make up two strands of DNA
the code in the base sequences is a simple triplet code
it is a sequence of three bases, called a codon
What does each codon code for?
an amino acid
What is a gene?
a section of DNA that contains the codons for entire proteins
What is degenerate code?
there are 64 codons possible, 4^3
there is more than one code for each amino acid
only 20 amino acids regularly occur in biological processes
What are the uses for the remaining combinations of nases
some used to stop start
mutations may not change amino acid / silent
