Question

What sequence of nucleotide pairs in a Drosophila gene will encode the amino acid sequence met-trp-phe-trp-met (reading from the amino terminus to the carboxyl terminus)?

Answer 1

ATGTGGTTCTGGATG

TACTCCAAGACCTAC

Step-by-step explanation:

To work this out, we need to know what codons encode for what amino acids. A table showing this information is attached. Don't be thrown off by the fact it says a Drosophila gene, the genetic code is universal, so it is the same for every organism.

We are asked the genetic code for methionine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, tryptophan, methionine.

According to the table, the sequence (and its complementary strand, called nucleotide pairs here) could be:

ATGTGGTTCTGGATG

TACACCAAGACCTAC

remember this is DNA, so the Us are converted to Ts

It could also be

ATGTGGTTTTGGATG

TACACCAAAACCTAC

because phenylalanine has codons UUU and UUC