Answer to Question #323194 in Biochemistry for vane

Question

1. Why a degenerate genetic code helps protect an organism from the effects of mutations?

Answer 1

Degeneracy is regarded to be a biological process that helps cells cope with the detrimental consequences of random mutations. The difference between codons that designate the same amino acid is usually only one nucleotide. Similar codons are used to encode amino acids with chemically similar side chains. This intricacy of the genetic code guarantees that a single-nucleotide substitution mutation will either indicate the same amino acid but have no impact, or specify a comparable amino acid, keeping the protein functioning.