Why is the universal genetic code described as 'degenerate' (or redundant)?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. Most individual amino acids are encoded by more than one distinct nucleotide triplet codon
The genetic code is degenerate because there are 64 possible codon triplets for only 20 standard amino acids and three stop signals, meaning multiple distinct synonymous codons can specify the same amino acid (e.g., six codons for leucine). Each codon specifies only one amino acid (unambiguous), and the code is non-overlapping.
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