Question

What would be the length of a polypeptide translated from mRNA which is encoded by $2988bp$ of a bacterial gene?

• A. $989$
• B. $992$
• C. $995$
• D. $998$

Answer 1

The correct option is C $995$

Each base pair codes for a nucleotide of mRNA hence mRNA from this bacterial gene will consist of 2988 nucleotides. As three-nucleotide sequence ( triplet codon ) codes for an amino acid in a polypeptide, polypeptide translated from this gene should have 2988/3 = 996 amino acids. Though, last codon (stop codon ) do not code for any amino acid hence the actual number of amino acids are 995.

So, the correct option is '995'.