Hi,

If a gene for neprilysin contains 80 000 base pairs, and neprilysin contains only 749 amino acids, can anyone explain the significance of the difference between the numbers ?

Can anyone suggest a place where I can read more on this topic ?

Thanks.....

It means there are many introns (ie, bits of the gene that aren't transcribed). 749 aa means 749 x 3 base pairs in the mature mRNA. Which means a good portion of the 80k bp were not transcribed (about 97%), and hence not translated to aa. You can also infer that it's a eukaryotic gene, because prokaryotic genes don't contain introns.

Look at the wiki entry for "Gene".

Hi HooBoo

Many Thanks :-)

I now understand .......

The significance of the difference between the number of base pairs in the gene for neprilysin (80,000) and the number of amino acids in neprilysin (749) lies in the process of gene expression and protein synthesis.

Genes are segments of DNA that contain the instructions for producing proteins. When a gene is expressed, the DNA code is transcribed into a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA). This mRNA is then translated into a sequence of amino acids, which form the protein.

In this case, the gene for neprilysin contains 80,000 base pairs, which represents the nucleotide sequence of the gene. However, during the process of transcription, not all of the base pairs are transcribed into mRNA. Only the coding regions, also known as exons, are transcribed. The non-coding regions, called introns, are removed. This process is called splicing.

After transcription and splicing, the resulting mRNA is translated into a sequence of amino acids. Each amino acid is coded by a sequence of three nucleotides, called a codon. Since there are 20 different amino acids commonly found in proteins, and there are 64 possible codons (4 possible nucleotides in a codon, raised to the power of 3), some amino acids are coded by multiple codons.

Therefore, the difference between the number of base pairs in the gene (80,000) and the number of amino acids in the protein (749) is due to the presence of non-coding regions (introns) in the gene, the process of splicing, and the fact that multiple codons can code for the same amino acid.

To read more about this topic, you can refer to textbooks or scientific articles on molecular biology, genetics, or protein synthesis. Online platforms like PubMed, ScienceDirect, or Google Scholar can be useful for finding relevant articles. Additionally, educational websites such as Khan Academy or NatureScitable provide resources on molecular biology concepts that could help you understand the topic in more detail.