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The Nature of the Genetic Code
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The Nature of the Genetic Code "One of the most remarkable facts of life is that each cell in an organism contains all the information required to determine all the characteristics of that whole organism"1. This information is an organism's genome, and is made up of the genetic code and is found in its DNA. The code determines the sequence of amino acids in a protein, the manufacture of which is one of the cell's most important roles. All the proteins in an organism are determined by four bases: Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Thymine. Three bases (or a triplet) code for one amino acid; there are about 20 amino acids, which, when arranged in a specific order (containing several hundred amino acids) will form a protein. The DNA in a nucleus does not directly synthesise these proteins. Firstly, messenger RNA (mRNA) is made on a DNA template in the nucleus, in...
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