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Genetic Code
Definition-A genetic code is the genetic information carried by the living cells in the form of nucleotide sequence on the DNA. A codon is a sequence of three nucleotides which together form a unit of genetic code in DNA or RNA molecule. A collection of codons is known as the genetic code.
George Gamow, a renowned physicist proposed that the four genetic bases (guanine, adenine,thymine, and cytosine) are the primary constituents of the code for 20 existing amino acids. Hence, the combination of these bases will occur in the set of three, resulting in 64 combinations. These combinations are called codons. Each codon thus has 3 bases producing 64 codons. Out of these 64 codons, only 61 can produce amino acids. The rest 3(UAG, UAA, and UGA) are used as stop codons during the process of translation. These codons are also known as nonsense codons or termination codons as they do not code for an amino acid. AUG is the most common START codon and it codes for the amino acid methionine (Met) in eukaryotes. During protein synthesis, the tRNA recognizes the START codon AUG with the help of some initiation factors and starts translation of mRNA.
Properties of genetic codes
There are certain rules that define a genetic code. It helps the living cells in the translation of information that can be found with the DNA as well as RNA sequences
Specificity of triplet codons- They are mostly triplet coded and are written in linear form. There is strong evidence, which proves that a sequence in a codon is made of three nucleotides which code for an amino acid in the protein.
• They are comma less-hence have no indication of an end or a beginning. No
punctuation in between which indicates that every codon is adjacent to the previous one without any nucleotides between them.
• They are unambiguous -which means a specific codon will only code for a particular amino acid.
• They are universal in nature- It means that one codon will lead to the formation of one amino acid in all the living organisms. For instance, Phenylalanine (Phe) has the genetic code UUU which is universal across all living beings.
• Degeneracy of codons- Some of the amino acids can have multiple codons for production. This is called the degeneracy of genetic code. Except tryptophan and methionine 18 out of 20aa are coded by more than one codon for example, Valine (Val) has four different sequential codons for production. They are GUA, GUC, GUU, and GUG.
They contain start and stop codons- Generally, AUG codon is the initiating or start codon. The polypeptide chain starts either with methionine (eukaryotes) or N-formyl methionine (prokaryotes).On the other hand, UAG, UAA and UGA are called as termination codons or stop codons and they never code for any amino acids. • They showcase polarity: The codons have a fixed polarity. Each triplet is read from 5’ → 3’ direction and the beginning base is 5’ followed by the base in the middle then the last base which is 3’.
• They are non-overlapping- The code is read in a group of three nucleotides and a nucleotide which becomes a part of one triplet never becomes part of the next triplet. For example 5’-UCU-3’ codes for Serine 5’-AUG-3’ codes for methionine
• Any change in the genetic code causes nutation- Mutations are errors in codons caused by changes in nucleotide bases.
