AISSCE

Session 2019-20

BIOLOGY PROJECT

GENETIC CODE
Submitted To Submitted By
Mr. BHUWNESH GAUR neelam VERMA
 12th (A)

Certificate
This is to certify that Neelam Verma studying in XII-A
(Science), during the academic year 2019-20 has
completed a project on the Study of the GENETIC CODE
and has given satisfactory account of this project work
of BIOLOGY. This project work of Biology was
performed and done by candidate herself under the
supervision of our Biology teacher Mr. Bhuwnesh Gaur.
Her approach to the project was sincere and satisfactory.

I certify that this project is up to my expectation and as

per C.B.S.E guidelines.

Principal’s signature External’s signature Internal’s signature

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

IT IS DIFFICULT TO FIND APPROPRIATE WORDS TO EXPRESS

MY FEELINGS OF GRATITUDE TO BHUWNESH SIRFOR HIS
KEEN INTEREST AND GUIDANCE DURING THE COMPLETION
OF THIS PROJECT WORK WITHOUT WHICH THIS MIGHT NOT
HAVE BEEN SEEN THIS DAY.

I DEFINITELY OWE MY SINCERE THANKS TO THANK

PRINCIPAL OF OUR SCHOOL FOR PROVIDING NECESSARY
FACILILITIES AND RESOURCES NEEDED TO DEVELOP THIS
PROJECT AND ENCOURAGE US FROM TIME TO TIME.

MY HEARTIEST THANKS GOES TO MY BROTHER FOR HIS

ENCOURAGEMENT AND SUGGESTIONS. LAST BUT NOT THE
LEAST I OWE A GREAT DEAL OF THANKS TO MY PARENTS
FOR THEIR INSPIRATION CARE AND COOPERATION DURING
THE COURSE OF THIS PROJECT.
 The genetic code
How is the information in an mRNA sequence decoded to
make a polypeptide? Learn how groups of three nucleotides,
called codons, specify amino acids (as well as start and stop
signals for translation).

Introduction
gene expression, the process in which information from a
gene is used to construct a protein (or other functional
product). How are the instructions for building a protein
encoded in DNA, and how are they deciphered by the cell? In
this article, we'll take a closer look at the genetic code, which
allows DNA and RNA nucleotide sequences to be translated
into the amino acids they represent.

Overview: Gene expression and the genetic code

Genes that provide instructions for proteins are expressed in a
two-step process.

 In transcription, the DNA sequence of a gene is

"rewritten" using RNA nucleotides. In eukaryotes, the
RNA must go through additional processing steps to
become a messenger RNA, or mRNA.

 In translation, the sequence of nucleotides in the

mRNA is "translated" into a sequence of amino acids in
a polypeptide (protein or protein subunit).

Cells decode mRNAs by reading their nucleotides in groups

of three, called codons. Each codon specifies a particular
amino acid, or, in some cases, provides a "stop" signal that
ends translation. In addition, the codon AUG has a special
role, serving as the start codon where translation begins. The
complete set of correspondences between codons and amino
acids (or stop signals) is know as the genetic code.
 Each three-letter sequence of mRNA nucleotides
corresponds to a specific amino acid, or to a stop codon.
UGA, UAA, and UAG are stop codons. AUG is the codon
for methionine, and is also the start codon.

The mRNA sequence is:

5'-AUGAUCUCGUAA-5'

Translation involves reading the mRNA nucleotides in

groups of three, each of which specifies and amino acid (or
provides a stop signal indicating that translation is
finished).
3'-AUG AUC UCG UAA-5'
 AUG → Methionine
AUC → Isoleucine
UCG → Serine
UAA → "Stop"

Polypeptide sequence: (N-terminus) Methionine-

Isoleucine-Serine (C-terminus)
In the rest of this article, we'll more closely at the genetic
code. First, we'll see how it was discovered. Then, we'll look
more deeply at its properties, seeing how it can be used to
predict the polypeptide encoded by an mRNA.

Code crackers: How the genetic code was

discovered
To crack the genetic code, researchers needed to figure out
how sequences of nucleotides in a DNA or RNA molecule
could encode the sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide.
Why was this tricky problem? In one of the simplest potential
codes, each nucleotide in a DNA or RNA molecule might
correspond to one amino acid in a polypeptide. However, this
code cannot actually work, because there are 20amino acids
commonly found in proteins and just 4 nucleotide bases in
DNA or RNA. Thus, researchers knew that the code must
involve something more complex than a one-to-one matching
of nucleotides and amino acids.

The triplet hypothesis

In the mid-1950s, the physicist George Gamow extended this
line of thinking to deduce that the genetic code was likely
composed of triplets of nucleotides. That is, he proposed that
a group of 3 successive nucleotides in a gene might code for
one amino acid in a polypeptide.
Gamow's reasoning was that even a doublet code
(2 nucleotides per amino acid) would not work, as it would
allow for only 16 ordered groups of nucleotides (4, squared),
too few to account for the 20 standard amino acids used to
build proteins. A code based on nucleotide triplets, however,
seemed promising: it would provide 64 unique sequences of
nucleotides (4, cubed), more than enough to cover
the 20 amino acids.

Nirenberg, Khorana, and the identification

of codons
Gamow’s triplet hypothesis seemed logical and was widely
accepted. However, it had not been experimentally proven,
and researchers still did not know which triplets of nucleotides
corresponded to which amino acids.
The cracking of the genetic code began in 1961, with work
from the American biochemist Marshall Nirenberg. For the
first time, Nirenberg and his colleagues were able to identify
specific nucleotide triplets that corresponded to particular
amino acids. Their success relied on two experimental
innovations:
 A way to make artificial mRNA molecules with specific,

known sequences.

 A system to translate mRNAs into polypeptides outside of

a cell (a "cell-free" system). Nirenberg's system consisted
of cytoplasm from burst E. coli cells, which contains all of
the materials needed for translation.
First, Nirenberg synthesized an mRNA molecule consisting
only of the nucleotide uracil (called poly-U). When he added
poly-U mRNA to the cell-free system, he found that the
polypeptides made consisted exclusively of the amino acid
phenylalanine. Because the only triplet in poly-U mRNA is
UUU, Nirenberg concluded that UUU might code for
phenylalanine. Using the same approach, he was able to show
that poly-C mRNA was translated into polypeptides made
exclusively of the amino acid proline, suggesting that the
triplet CCC might code for proline.

Other researchers, such as the biochemist Har Gobind

Khorana at University of Wisconsin, extended Nirenberg's
experiment by synthesizing artificial mRNAs with more
complex sequences. For instance, in one experiment, Khorana
generated a poly-UC (UCUCUCUCUC…) mRNA and added
it to a cell-free system similar to Nirenberg's. The poly-UC
mRNA that it was translated into polypeptides with an
alternating pattern of serine and leucine amino acids. These
and other results unambiguously confirmed that the genetic
code was based on triplets, or codons. Today, we know that
serine is encoded by the codon UCU, while leucine is encoded
by CUC.
By 1965, using the cell-free system and other techniques,
Nirenberg, Khorana, and their colleagues had deciphered the
entire genetic code. That is, they had identified the amino acid
or "stop" signal corresponding to each one of the 64
nucleotide codons. For their contributions, Nirenberg and
Khorana (along with another genetic code researcher, Robert
Holley) received the Nobel Prize in 1968.

Properties of the genetic code

As we saw above, the genetic code is based on triplets of

nucleotides called codons, which specify individual amino
acids in a polypeptide (or "stop" signals at its end). The
codons of an mRNA are “read” one by one inside protein-and-
RNA structures called ribosomes, starting at the 5’ end of the
gene and moving towards the 3’ end. Let's take
a closer look at the genetic code in the context of translation.
Types of codons (start, stop, and "normal")

Translation always begins at a start codon, which has the

sequence AUG and encodes the amino acid methionine (Met)
in most organisms. Thus, every polypeptide typically starts
with methionine, although the initial methionine may be
snipped off in later processing steps. A start codon is required
to begin translation, but the codon AUG can also appear later
in the coding sequence of an a mRNA, where it simply
specifies the amino acid methionine.

Once translation has begun at the start codon, the following

codons of the mRNA will be read one by one, in the 5' to 3'
direction. As each codon is read, the matching amino acid is
added to the C-terminus of the polypeptide. Most of the
codons in the genetic code specify amino acids and are read
during this phase of translation.
Translation continues until a stop codon is reached. There are
three stop codons in the genetic code, UAA, UAG, and UGA.
Unlike start codons, stop codons don't correspond to an amino
acid. Instead, they act as "stop" signals, indicating that the
polypeptide is complete and causing it to be released from the
ribosome. More nucleotides may appear after the stop codon
in the mRNA, but will not be translated as part of the
polypeptide.

Reading frame

The start codon is critical because it determines where

translation will begin on the mRNA. Most importantly, the
position of the start codon determines the reading frame, or
how the mRNA sequence is divided up into groups of three
nucleotides inside the ribosome. As shown in the diagram
below, the same sequence of nucleotides can encode
completely different polypeptides depending on the frame in
which it's read. The start codon determines which frame is
chosen and thus ensures that the correct polypeptide is
produced.
To see what reading frame is, it's helpful to consider an
analogy using words and letters. The following message
makes sense to us because we read it in the correct frame
(divide it correctly into groups of three letters): MOM AND
DAD ARE MAD. If we shift the reading frame by grouping
letters into threes starting one position later, however, we get:
OMA NDD ADA REM AD. The frameshift results in a
message that no longer makes sense.

An important point to note here is that the nucleotides in a

gene are not physically organized into groups of three.
Instead, what constitutes a codon is simply a matter of where
the ribosome begins reading, and of what sequence of
nucleotides comes after the start codon. Mutations that insert
or delete a single nucleotide may alter reading frame, resulting
in the production of a “gibberish” protein similar to the
scrambled sentence in the example above.

One amino acid, many codons

As previously mentioned, the genetic code consists
of 64 unique codons. But if there are only 20 amino acids,
what are the other 44 codons doing? As we saw, a few are
stop codons, but most are not. Instead, the genetic code turns
out to be a degenerate code, meaning that some amino acids
are specified by more than one codon. For example, proline is
represented by four different codons (CCU, CCC, CCA, and
CCG). If any one of these codons appears in an mRNA, it will
cause proline to be added to the polypeptide chain.

Most of the amino acids in the genetic code are encoded by at

least two codons. In fact, methionine and tryptophan are the
only amino acids specified by a single codon. Importantly, the
reverse isn't true: each codon specifies just one amino acid or
stop signal. Thus, there's no ambiguity (uncertainty) in the
genetic code. A particular codon in an mRNA will always be
predictably translated into a particular amino acid or stop
signal.

The genetic code is (nearly) universal

With some minor exceptions, all living organisms on Earth

use the same genetic code. This means that the codons
specifying the 20 amino acids in your cells are the same as
those used by the bacteria inhabiting hydrothermal vents at the
bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Even in organisms that don't use
the "standard" code, the differences are relatively small, such
as a change in the amino acid encoded by a particular codon.
A genetic code shared by diverse organisms provides
important evidence for the common origin of life on Earth.
That is, the many species on Earth today likely evolved from
an ancestral organism in which the genetic code was already
present. Because the code is essential to the function of cells,
it would tend to remain unchanged in species across
generations, as individuals with significant changes might be
unable to survive. This type of evolutionary process can
explain the remarkable similarity of the genetic code across
present-day organisms.