Life as we know it depends on the genetic code: a set of codons, each made up of three bases in a DNA sequence and corresponding
mRNA sequence, that specifies which of the 20 amino acids will be added to the protein during translation.Imagine that a prokaryote-like organism has been discovered in the polar ice on Mars. Interestingly, these Martian organisms use the same DNA → RNA → protein system as life on Earth, except that______
In the most general case of x bases and y bases per codon, the total number of possible codons is equal to xy .
In the case of the hypothetical Martian life-forms, is the minimum codon length needed to specify 17 amino acids is 5 (25 = 32), with some redundancy (meaning that more than one codon could code for the same amino acid). For life on Earth, x = 4 and y = 3; thus the number of codons is 43, or 64. Because there are only 20 amino acids, there is a lot of redundancy in the code (there are several codons for each amino acid).
The instrument of choice would be the the clam shell sampler, which is also know as a grab sampler. Another instrument they use is the piston corer which is an open tube on a cable that gets dropped from a ship.
Molecules can move into or out of cells by the process of diffusion . Diffusion is the net movement of molecules from an area where they are at a higher concentration to areas where they are at a lower concentration.