Question

Imagine that a probe sent to mars brings back a sample that contains a very primitive life-form, which appears similar to bacteria. scientists are able to revive it and begin to grow it in culture. much to their amazement, they discover that the organism has dna and that the dna encodes proteins. however, the dna of these martian microbes contains only two nucleotides. if the martian microbe uses triplet codons, what is the maximum number of different amino acids that it can have in its proteins

Answer 1

The formula for the maximum number of different amino acids can be calculated using the equation:

Maximum number of different amino acids = [(Number of nucleotides) ^ (Number of codons)] - 1

Where it is given that:

Number of nucleotides = 2

Number of codons = triplet = 3

The -1 in the equation implies that at least one of the codons must be a stop.

Therefore substituting to the equation:

Maximum number of different amino acids = (2 ^ 3) – 1

Maximum number of different amino acids = 8 – 1

Maximum number of different amino acids = 7 (ANSWER)