Verla
BiologyGenetics

Codon Size and the Genetic Code: Mastering Biology Answer

With two possible bases at each codon position, a codon of length n has 2^n possible sequences. Four positions provide only 16 codes, while five provide 32, so five bases is the minimum needed to encode 17 amino acids.

Question

A hypothetical prokaryote-like organism on Mars uses DNA to RNA to protein, but its DNA contains only A and T and its proteins use 17 amino acids. What is the minimum number of bases required in each fixed-length codon?

This question has been answered.

Explore the full answer and supporting references to better understand this question.

Verla BasicBest value
$19.99/month
  • Everything in Study Pass
  • Assignments with writing output
  • AI detection and humanizer
  • Basic quotas across every tool
Study Pass
$0.99/month
  • Entire question library
  • Knowledge guides and sources
  • Detailed answers and explanations
  • No AI tools or quotas

Evidence boundary

This answer solves the publicly indexed prompt as a fixed-length coding-capacity problem with two DNA bases and 17 amino acids. It does not claim that such Martian organisms exist, and it does not assign a required function to the unused codons.