Genetic Code - Variations To The Standard Genetic Code

Variations To The Standard Genetic Code

See also: List of genetic codes

While slight variations on the standard code had been predicted earlier, none were discovered until 1979, when researchers studying human mitochondrial genes discovered they used an alternative code. Many slight variants have been discovered since then, including various alternative mitochondrial codes, and small variants such as translation of the codon UGA as tryptophan in Mycoplasma species, and translation of CUG as a serine rather than a leucine in some members of the genus Candida (see the article on Candida albicans). In bacteria and archaea, GUG and UUG are common start codons, but in rare cases, certain proteins may use alternative start codons not normally used by that species.

In certain proteins, non-standard amino acids are substituted for standard stop codons, depending on associated signal sequences in the messenger RNA. For example, UGA can code for selenocysteine, and UAG can code for pyrrolysine. Selenocysteine is now viewed as the 21st amino acid, and pyrrolysine is viewed as the 22nd.

Despite these differences, all known naturally-occurring codes are very similar to each other, and the coding mechanism is the same for all organisms: three-base codons, tRNA, ribosomes, reading the code in the same direction and translating the code three letters at a time into sequences of amino acids.

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