During translation, nucleotide base triplets (codons) in mRNA are read in sequence in the 5’ → 3’ direction along the mRNA. Amino acids are specified by the string of codons. What amino acid sequence does the following mRNA nucleotide sequence specify?

Question

5′−AUGGCAAGAAAA−3′


Express the sequence of amino acids using the three-letter abbreviations, separated by hyphens (e.g., Met-Ser-Thr-Lys-Gly).
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Answer 1

To determine the amino acid sequence specified by the mRNA nucleotide sequence 5′−AUGGCAAGAAAA−3′, we can first break the sequence into its respective codons (groups of three nucleotides) and then translate those codons into their corresponding amino acids.

The mRNA sequence 5′−AUGGCAAGAAAA−3′ can be divided into the following codons:

1. AUG
2. GCA
3. AGA
4. AAA

Next, we can use the standard genetic code to translate these codons:

1. AUG - Methionine (Met) - Start codon
2. GCA - Alanine (Ala)
3. AGA - Arginine (Arg)
4. AAA - Lysine (Lys)

Putting it all together, the corresponding amino acid sequence is:

Met-Ala-Arg-Lys

So the final answer is:

Met-Ala-Arg-Lys