Question

The theory,of evolution states that all living things had a single common ancestor. The translation between mRNA and amino acids is the same for all living thing. Does the second statement support the theory of evolution ?

Answer 1

Answer: the theory of evolution states that all living things we can identify descend from the Last Universal Common Ancestor. It is not that the translation process between mRNA and amino acids is universal, but that the underlying genetic code relating DNA nucleotide triplets (codons) to amino acids is the same for almost all living things.

Explanation: The genetic code ‘tells’ mRNA which the sequence of amino acids in a protein and when to stop adding amino acids. The DNA . triplets, called codons, code for 20 amino acids and a STOP signal. The code is identical in almost all cases, but there are variation, mostly found in mitochondrial DNA. But even when these variants exist, most of the code is the same as in other living organisms. For example the codon AGG normally codes for the amino acid serine but in arthropod mitochondria it codes for lysine. These very few and minor changes tend to confirm the single ancestry of the code and how well it has been conserved through billions of replications