Biochemistry 2280A Study Guide - Final Guide: Aminoacyl-Trna, Missense Mutation, Nonsense Mutation
12 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
The genetic code spells out the amino acid sequence in 3 letter words called codons. If codons were only one base, then we could only code 41 a. a. If 2 bases, then we could only code 16. Every organism have the genetic code, and the code has evolved once, emphasizing the unity of life issue. The only evolved once in evolutionary history, evidence that we come from a universal ancestor. The code is non-overlapping, so the codons are consecutive. An overlapping code would look like this, which does not. If the code were overlapping, the codon for the proceeding a. a. would in part determine the following codon. That would impose restrictions then on the sequence of a. a. in proteins, because what was in front would determine what was behind, and thus the diversity and function of proteins would be limited. The restrictions would be greater if it was a 2 base overlap.
