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How many amino acids would be coded for if a gene has 35 nucleotide bases?

A) 7 amino acids
B) 10 amino acids
C) 12 amino acids
D) 35 amino acids

User Arturovm
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1 Answer

5 votes

Final answer:

A gene with 35 nucleotide bases would code for 11 amino acids; however, since one nucleotide would be left over and cannot form a complete codon, only 10 amino acids would be considered (option B being the closest).

Step-by-step explanation:

The number of amino acids coded by a gene with 35 nucleotide bases can be determined by understanding that every three nucleotides, or a codon, encode for one amino acid. Given that there are 35 nucleotides, they would be divided into codons of three nucleotides each.

Since 35 is not evenly divisible by 3, the calculation would go as follows: 35 divided by 3 gives us 11 codons with two extra nucleotides that cannot form a complete codon and hence won't code for an amino acid. Therefore, 11 amino acids would be coded by a gene with 35 nucleotides.

If we're strictly considering complete codons only, the final answer would be slightly less than the number of codons, which is 11 complete codons times three nucleotides each, yielding 11 amino acids. Thus, with incomplete codons being discarded, the closest answer among the options given would be 10 amino acids (option B).

User David Xu
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