codon
The basic unit of the genetic code. It consists
of a nucleotide triplet in DNA
or messenger RNA (mRNA) which codes for a specific
amino acid. As there are 64 possible codons
but only 20 amino acids in terrestrial organisms, some amino acids have
more than one codon (known as degenerative codons). There are also "stop"
codons which serve to terminate a translation.
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