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Multiple Choice
How many DNA codons are used by life on Earth to encode amino acids?
A
64
B
23
C
61
D
20
Verified step by step guidance
1
Understand that DNA codons are sequences of three nucleotides that correspond to specific amino acids or stop signals during protein synthesis.
Recognize that there are four different nucleotides in DNA: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).
Calculate the total number of possible codons by considering all combinations of the three nucleotides. This is done by raising the number of nucleotides to the power of the number of positions in a codon: 4^3.
Realize that the calculation 4^3 results in 64 possible codons.
Note that out of these 64 codons, 3 are stop codons, which do not encode amino acids, leaving 61 codons that actually encode amino acids.