Planet X, a recently discovered planet, contains life forms that have double-stranded DNA as the genetic material. The DNA on Planet X is transcribed into RNA which is translated into protein. Planet X DNA contains only two bases: guanine (G) and cytosine (C), in a 20A wide double helix. The Planet X life form genetic code is a quadruplet code (code words are 4 bases long) and it is non-over lapping.

1) Given these properties of the genetic code on Planet X, what is the maximum number of different code words (codons) in the Planet X genetic code?

2) Would you expect to find that the number of different amino acids in the Planet X proteins was equal to, less than, or greater than, the maximum number of different code words in the Planet X genetic code?

1) To determine the maximum number of different code words in the Planet X genetic code, we need to consider the number of bases and the length of the code words. In this case, Planet X DNA contains only two bases: guanine (G) and cytosine (C), and the code words are quadruplets (four bases long).

Since the DNA on Planet X contains only two bases, each position in the code word can be occupied by either G or C. Therefore, for each position, there are 2 options (G or C). Since the code words are quadruplets, we multiply the number of options by itself four times: 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 16.

Therefore, the maximum number of different code words (codons) in the Planet X genetic code is 16.

2) The number of different amino acids in proteins is determined by the number of different code words in the genetic code. Since we found that the maximum number of different code words in the Planet X genetic code is 16, we would expect the number of different amino acids in Planet X proteins to be less than or equal to 16.

This is because each code word in the genetic code corresponds to a specific amino acid. If there were more amino acids than code words, some amino acids would have to be represented by multiple code words, leading to redundancy and potentially confusion in protein synthesis.

Therefore, the number of different amino acids in the Planet X proteins would be equal to or less than the maximum number of different code words in the Planet X genetic code, which is 16.

1) The maximum number of different code words (codons) in the Planet X genetic code can be calculated by raising the number of different bases (2) to the power of the number of bases per codon (4). Therefore, the maximum number of different code words in the Planet X genetic code would be 2^4 = 16.

2) The number of different amino acids in proteins is determined by the number of different code words in the genetic code. In the case of Planet X, the maximum number of different code words is 16. However, the actual number of amino acids in proteins may be less than this maximum number. This is because multiple code words can encode the same amino acid, leading to degeneracy in the genetic code. So, it would be expected to find that the number of different amino acids in the Planet X proteins could be less than the maximum number of different code words in the Planet X genetic code.