How many codons, including redundant codons, will there be if proteins involved 100 different amino acids rather than 20?
A) 4
B) 128
C) 256
D) 512

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

There are 100 different amino acids, which means there are 100 possible codons. Since codons are made up of three nucleotides, there are 4^3 = 64 possible codons without redundancy. However, since there are 100 amino acids, there must be at least 100 codons (assuming each amino acid has at least one codon). Therefore, there must be redundancy, which means the number of possible codons is greater than 100 but less than 256. The closest option is C, which is 256.

How Many Codons, Including Redundant Codons, Will There Be If