In the context of the central dogma, how many nucleotides in an mRNA coding sequence specify one amino acid during translation?

• A. 2 nucleotides
• B. 1 nucleotide
• C. 3 nucleotides
• D. 4 nucleotides

Answer: (C)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Recall that the central dogma of molecular biology describes the flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA to protein.
2. Understand that during translation, the mRNA sequence is read in sets of nucleotides called codons.
3. Each codon consists of a specific number of nucleotides that correspond to one amino acid in the protein sequence.
4. Recognize that the genetic code is based on triplets, meaning each codon is made up of 3 nucleotides.
5. Therefore, 3 nucleotides in an mRNA coding sequence specify one amino acid during translation.