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Biology

Critical Thinking Questions

BiologyCritical Thinking Questions
14.

Imagine if there were 200 commonly occurring amino acids instead of 20. Given what you know about the genetic code, what would be the shortest possible codon length? Explain.

15.

Discuss how degeneracy of the genetic code makes cells more robust to mutations.

16.

If mRNA is complementary to the DNA template strand and the DNA template strand is complementary to the DNA nontemplate strand, then why are base sequences of mRNA and the DNA nontemplate strand not identical? Could they ever be?

17.

In your own words, describe the difference between rho-dependent and rho-independent termination of transcription in prokaryotes.

18.

Transcribe and translate the following DNA sequence (nontemplate strand): 5'-ATGGCCGGTTATTAAGCA-3'

19.

Explain how single nucleotide changes can have vastly different effects on protein function.

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