Answer to Question #279641 in Genetics for JJJ

Question

An irony is that DNA is fundamentally a fairly simple molecule with only four different bases 

- yet it is sufficient to code for the instructions to create proteins that make up an organism. 

How many bases are needed to code for the 20 key amino acids (building block for a protein)?  

What if only 16 amino acids were needed?

Answer 1

64 possible codons

Because there are only 20 different amino acids but 64 possible codons, most amino acids are indicated by more than one codon. (Note, however, that each codon represents only one amino acid or stop codon.)