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What is a codon and why are they important?

Why are there 3 bases per Codon ?

  • why are there 3 bases per codon; - it is energetically more efficient to have 3 bases per codon - is it by pure chance, two would work - four would not code enough (20) amino acids - two would not code enougth (20) amino acids

  • Answer:

    None of those, but here's the answer your unimaginative teacher wants: - two would not code enougth (20) amino acids Your teacher isn't thinking about having another base pair in addition to A-T and C-G. Your teacher is not thinking about variable length encoding in which some codons would have two base pairs and some would have three. Your teacher is neither mathematician nor computer scientist.

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Two would only give 16 options, and there are 20 amino acids. Four would give 256 options, which is way too much. Three gives 64, which is enough for the 20 common amino acids plus start and stop codons. It also allows redundancy, so a mutation is less likely to have an effect (aka a "silent" mutation).

Stonecold

2 would not code enough 20 amino acids.

Tony Tran

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