Question

In genetic code, $61$ codons code for $20$ different types of amino acids. This is called.

• A. Colinearity
• B. Commaless
• C. Degeneracy
• D. Non-ambiguity

Answer 1

The correct option is C Degeneracy

The genetic code is triplet which means 3 nucleotides code for one amino acid but the total number of nucleotides is 4. Hence more than one codon can specify a single amino acid. There are total 64 codons of which 3 are the stop codons. Hence only 61 codons code for the 20 amino acids and this is called the degeneracy of the genetic code. Thus the correct answer is option C.