If an amino acid has more than one triplet code, this demonstrates that the genetic code is:

If an amino acid has more than one triplet code, this demonstrates that the genetic code is:

• A. Nonredundant
• B. Redundant
• C. Incomplete
• D. Ambiguous

Answer: (B)

Redundancy in the genetic code means that an amino acid can be specified by more than one codon. Since there are 64 possible triplets but only about 20 amino acids, many amino acids are encoded by several different codons, a feature called degeneracy. This explains why an amino acid having multiple triplet codes is the best description of the code. For example, leucine and serine are encoded by multiple codons. The other options don’t fit: nonredundant would mean each amino acid has a single codon; incomplete would imply some amino acids lack codons or the code isn’t fully mapped; ambiguous would mean a single codon codes for more than one amino acid, which isn’t how the code is organized.

Redundancy in the genetic code means that an amino acid can be specified by more than one codon. Since there are 64 possible triplets but only about 20 amino acids, many amino acids are encoded by several different codons, a feature called degeneracy. This explains why an amino acid having multiple triplet codes is the best description of the code. For example, leucine and serine are encoded by multiple codons. The other options don’t fit: nonredundant would mean each amino acid has a single codon; incomplete would imply some amino acids lack codons or the code isn’t fully mapped; ambiguous would mean a single codon codes for more than one amino acid, which isn’t how the code is organized.