Question

You know that there are twenty different types of naturally occurring amino acids and four different types of bases in the DNA. A combination of 3 such bases code for a specific amino acid. If instead there are 96 different amino acids and 12 different bases in the DNA, then the minimum number of combination of bases required to form a codon is ______.

विकल्प

• 6

• 8

• 2

• 4

Answer 1

You know that there are twenty different types of naturally occurring amino acids and four different types of bases in the DNA. A combination of 3 such bases code for a specific amino acid. If instead there are 96 different amino acids and 12 different bases in the DNA, then the minimum number of combination of bases required to form a codon is 2.

Explanation:

The number of possible combinations of bases to form a codon is given by:

Number of combinations = (number of bases)ⁿ

where n is the number of bases in a codon. To code for 96 amino acids with 12 different bases:

12ⁿ ≥ 96

Taking n = 2

12² = 144 ≥ 96

Thus, the minimum number of bases required in a codon is 2.