Question

Glycine, alanine, and valine are classified as nonpolar amino acids. Compare their codons. What similarities do you find? What differences do you find?

Short answer

Answer: The similarities among the codons of glycine, alanine, and valine include all codons starting with the nitrogenous base Guanine (G) and having either Guanine (G), Cytosine (C), or Uracil (U) in the second position. The differences include variations in the second position, where glycine has Guanine (G), alanine has Cytosine (C), and valine has Uracil (U). Additionally, the third position of the codon can be any of the four nitrogenous bases, displaying redundancy and flexibility within the genetic code.

Step-by-step solution

Identify the codons of glycine, alanine, and valine.

To start, we need to list the codons for each of the nonpolar amino acids mentioned in the exercise. Here are the codons for each amino acid: Glycine (Gly): GGU, GGC, GGA, GGG Alanine (Ala): GCU, GCC, GCA, GCG Valine (Val): GUU, GUC, GUA, GUG

Compare the similarities of the codons.

Now, let's analyze the similarities of the codons for these nonpolar amino acids. We can observe that: 1. All codons start with the nitrogenous base Guanine (G). This is common among these nonpolar amino acids. 2. The second position of each codon contains either Guanine (G), Cytosine (C), or Uracil (U).

Compare the differences of the codons.

Next, let's analyze the differences between the codons for these nonpolar amino acids. We can observe that: 1. The second position of the codons differs for each amino acid: - Glycine: has Guanine (G) in the second position (GG_) - Alanine: has Cytosine (C) in the second position (GC_) - Valine: has Uracil (U) in the second position (GU_) These differences help in specifying and differentiating these nonpolar amino acids during translation. 2. The third position of the codon can be any of the four nitrogenous bases (U, C, A, G) which shows the redundancy and flexibility of the genetic code, allowing for multiple codons to code for a single amino acid.