By Team Aakash Byju's

What Are the Four Important Characteristics of Genetic Code?

The genetic code is universal, indicating that the code specifies the same amino acid from a virus to a tree or a human person.

Universal code

Each code represents only one amino acid and not any other.

Non-ambiguous code

A code is made up of three contiguous nitrogen bases and indicates the location of one amino acid in a polypeptide.

Triplet code

 The genetic code shows a definite direction. It is always read in the 5’ → 3’ direction, not the 3’ → 5’ direction else the message will be misinterpreted.

Distinct Polarity

 The code indicating that each base belongs to only one code and adjacent codes do not overlap.

Non-overlapping

 Between successive codes, there are no gaps or punctuations.

Commaless

Because a single amino acid can be coded by more than one code, the genetic code is defined as degenerate.

Degeneracy