Deciphering Genetic Code

tRNA

links a set of 3 bases on mRNA to a particular amino acid

codon

set of three bases

missense mutation

substitution where a codon for 1 amino acid is changed to a different amino acid

AUG

start codon

tRNA synthetase

enzyme that attaches the correct amino acid to the tRNA

nonsense mutation

substitution mutation that changes a codon that specudues an amino acid into a stop codon

nonsense

what mutation causes truncated proteins?

nonsense suppressor mutation

mutation in a gene for a tRNA’s anticodon to bind to a stop codon

truncated protein becomes normal length

degenerate

more than 1 codon specifies the same amino acid 

G-U

what type of pairing is allowed at the 5’ end of the anticodon and 3’ end of the codon?

correspond to normal base pairing

first two bases of anticodon and codon need to

AI

() at the 5’ end of the anticodon can be modified to ()

RNA transcript

what is the complement of the gene’s template strand?

primary transcript

transcript that includes both exons and introns