Join thousands of students who trust us to help them ace their exams!Watch the first video
Multiple Choice
How many codons are there for the amino acid leucine?
A
4
B
6
C
2
D
8
Verified step by step guidance
1
Understand that a codon is a sequence of three nucleotides in mRNA that corresponds to a specific amino acid or a stop signal during protein synthesis.
Recall that the genetic code is degenerate, meaning that most amino acids are encoded by more than one codon.
Leucine is one of the amino acids that is encoded by multiple codons. Specifically, leucine is encoded by six different codons.
The codons for leucine are: UUA, UUG, CUU, CUC, CUA, and CUG. These codons are found in the mRNA sequence during translation.
To determine the number of codons for leucine, count the distinct codons listed above, which confirms that there are six codons for leucine.