What are all the possible codons for Leucine? Where are they the same and where are they different? What is this redundancy called and why is it in the genetic code?

Answer 1

What are all the possible codons for Leucine?

DNA codons for Leucine: CTT, CTC, CTA, CTG

RNA codons for Leucine: CUU, CUC, CUA, CUG

Where are they the same and where are they different?

The first and second positions of all codons are the same. The third position is different.

What is this redundancy called and why is it in the genetic code?

This redundancy is called "codon degeneracy". This makes the genetic code more fault-tolerant to point mutations. For the example of the Leucine codons, as long as the first two nucleotides in the codon are correct, any nucleotide in the third position will still match the same amino acid (Leucine) in the final protein.

Answer 2

Hi Danielle! The possible codons for Leucine in DNA are as follows: AAT, AAC, GAA, GAG GAT, GAC. Based on this, we see that they are the same in the second position (always A), and different in the first and third positions. This is called redundancy, where multiple nucleotide combinations code for the same amino acid. This has applications in minimizing error, as a mutation that causes a change in a nucleotide may still code for the same amino acid.