2025 Molecular Basis of InheritanceThe Genetic Code Easy Question 12 of 200 in Molecular Basis of Inheritance

Who proposed that the genetic code for amino acids should be made up of three nucleotides?

A George Gamow
B Francis Crick
C Jacque Monod
D Franklin Stahl

The answer is A.

Solution

Physicist George Gamow postulated the triplet nature of the genetic code.

Physicist George Gamow argued that since there are only 4 bases to code for 20 amino acids, codons must be triplets of bases ($4^3 = 64$ combinations), which was later biochemically validated.

Concept Triplet Code Hypothesis

Molecular Basis of Inheritance in past papers

200 questions from this chapter have appeared across 27 exam years.