Genetic code is the relationship between the sequence of nucleotides on mRNA and sequence of amino acids in the polypeptide.
Its features are
- The genetic code is universal ie., the codons code for one amino acid is same in all organism.
- Codons are triplet codons and there are 64 codons. 61 codons code for twenty different amino acids while the other three (UAA, UAG, UGA) are termination codons which do not code for any amino acids.
- Each codon codes for only one particular amino acid. Therefore it is unambiguous.
- Some amino acids are coded by more than one codon there for it is said to be degenerate.
- The codons are read in a continuous manner, without any punctuation ie., codons are comma less.
- AUG has dual functions of coding for metheonine as well as functioning as initiation codon.
