Connected knowledge

Genetic code

Correspondence between three-nucleotide codons and the amino acids they specify.

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Concept

Genetic code

Correspondence between three-nucleotide codons and the amino acids they specify.

It is the set of rules that assigns each codon, a group of three nucleotides, a specific amino acid or a termination signal, and that allows the sequence of nucleic acids to be translated into the sequence of a protein.

Of the 64 possible combinations, 61 code for amino acids and three act as termination signals; the code is nearly universal among living beings, which allows, for example, bacteria to produce human proteins such as insulin. Documented punctual exceptions exist in some organisms.

The video presents it as a table, sometimes shown as a wheel, in which each codon corresponds to an amino acid; it explains that deciphering it took five years, from 1961 to 1966, and that the same table was found to work in archaea, fungi, plants, and animals, with a few exceptions such as human mitochondria, which read UGA as tryptophan, or some yeasts of the genus Candida, which read CUG as serine.

Relations

Sources · original ES transcript

  • The Rule Behind All Life | The Central Dogma18:26
    La respuesta es esta tabla, a veces también representada como esta rueda: el código genético. Cada codón, cada grupo de tres nucleótidos, corresponde a un aminoácido. Cuatro letras en tres posiciones dan 64 combinaciones, donde 61 son traducidas a aminoácidos y las otras tres son codones de terminación.
  • The Rule Behind All Life | The Central Dogma19:38
    Lo que encontraron después fue lo verdaderamente inesperado: la misma tabla funciona en arqueas, hongos, plantas y animales, donde por supuesto estamos nosotros incluidos. Por eso es que una bacteria es capaz de leer un gen humano y producir insulina humana.
  • The Rule Behind All Life | The Central Dogma19:57
    hay que considerar que hay contadas excepciones descubiertas de este fenómeno, donde, por ejemplo, las mitocondrias humanas leen UGA como triptófano en lugar de un codón de terminación, o algunas levaduras del género Candida, que leen CUG como serina en vez de leucina.
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