Molecular Basis of Inheritance Question 65

65. What is not true for genetic code?

[2009]

(a) It is nearly universal

(b) It is degenerate

(c) It is unambiguous

(d) A codon in mRNA is read in a non contiguous fashion

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Answer : d

Hints & Solution

(d) The genetic code consists of 64 triplets of nucleotides. These triplets are called codons. With three exceptions, each codon encodes for one of the 20 amino acids used in the synthesis of proteins. That produces some redundancy in the code. Most of the amino acids being encoded by more than one codon. The genetic code can be expressed as either RNA codons or DNA codons.