Solution-Determine the genetic code of organism
NASA has identified a new microbe present on Mars and requests that you determine the genetic code of this organism. To accomplish this goal, you isolate an extract from this microbe that contains all the components necessary for protein synthesis except mRNA. Synthetic mRNAs are added to this extract and the resulting polypeptides are analyzed:
|
Synthetic mRNA |
Resulting Polypeptides |
|
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA |
Lysine-Lysine-Lysine etc. |
|
CACACACACACACACA |
Threonine-Histidine-Threonine-Histidine etc. |
|
AACAACAACAACAACA |
Threonine-Threonine-Threonine etc. |
|
Glutamine-Glutamine-Glutamine etc. |
|
|
Asparagine-Asparagine-Asparagine etc. |
From these data, what specifics can you conclude about the microbes genetic code?
What is the sequence of the anticodon loop of a tRNA carrying a threonine?
If you found that this microbe contained 61 different tRNAs, what could you speculate about the fidelity of translation in this organism?