Question

Model 1 defines the code scientists have discovered that relates the nucleotide sequence of mrna to the amino acid sequence of polypeptides.

a. what do the letters u, c, a, and g in model 1 represent

Answer 1

Letters U, C, A and G represent the nucleotides comprising the mRNA molecule. During the process called translation, a specific mRNA molecule (called messenger mRNA) is decoded into a specific amino acid chain, a polypeptide. For every triplet of nucleotides, a specific amino acid is encoded. The table of Model 1, shows that every triplet is comprised of these four nucleotides in different combinations.