Question

This question refers two mRNA sequences below:

a) 5' - A G C U G A U G G G C U G G U G C C G A G A A A G U U A G G U A A - 3'

b) 5'-A A C G A A U A U G U U A A U C G U A G C C A C C U G G U U C A G C U A A G G U G A-3

What is the name of the fourth amino acid in each of the proteins (a. and b.) formed from these two mRNAs? Fill in the blank with the correct amino acid name, but nothing else so that Moodle can grade this question correctly

Please help with explaination!

Answer 1

Genetic code is universal. With minor exceptions, virtually all species use the same genetic code for protein synthesis. Genetic code is read in the form of codons. A codon is a sequence of three RNA nucleotides (A,T,G,U) that corresponds with a specific amino acid or stop signal during protein synthesis. A three-nucleotide codon in a mRNA specifies a single amino acid. mRNA codons are read from 5' to 3' and they specify the order of amino acids in a protein from N-terminus to C-terminus.
From the given mRNA sequences the fourth codon in sequence (a) is found to be GCU which codes for the amino acid Alanine and in the sequence (b) the fourth codon is GUU which codes for the amino acid Valine.
(Codon table is used to find which codon codes for which amino acid.)