what is the minimum number of dna bases for a gene that begins as a polypeptide of 86 amino acids?
To determine the minimum number of DNA bases needed for a gene that encodes a polypeptide, we need to consider a few factors.
First, let's understand the relationship between DNA, RNA, and amino acids. DNA contains sequences of nucleotide bases (adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine) that provide the instructions for building proteins. To create a protein, the DNA sequence is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA), which is then translated into a polypeptide chain of amino acids.
The genetic code is read in groups of three nucleotides called codons. Each codon corresponds to a specific amino acid. Therefore, to determine the number of DNA bases required for a gene encoding a polypeptide, we need to consider the relationship between the number of amino acids and the number of codons.
In this case, you mentioned that the polypeptide consists of 86 amino acids. Since each amino acid is specified by a codon, we can assume that we need at least 86 codons to encode this protein. Since each codon consists of three nucleotides, we can calculate the minimum number of DNA bases required by multiplying the number of codons (86) by 3.
Therefore, the minimum number of DNA bases required for a gene that encodes a polypeptide of 86 amino acids is 258 bases.