given that there are 5 different nucleic acid bases but 20 different amino acids, present a reason why proteins would have been the most likely candidate for genetic material.

Question

given that there are 5 different nucleic acid bases but 20 different amino acids, present a reason why proteins would have been the most likely candidate for genetic material. As a hint, think about the English alphabet.

Answer 1

The reason why proteins were considered likely candidates to be genetic material is that 20 amino acids gives you more "bits" of information to work with than the 5 nucleic acid bases would. If you were making words out of a language with 5 letters compared to words out of a language with 20 letters, the 20 letters gives you more possible combinations of letters to form words with.