According to the triplet hypothesis, what is the relationship between nucleotides and amino acids?

The triplet hypothesis is fundamental to understanding how genetic information is translated from nucleotides in messenger RNA (mRNA) to amino acids in a protein. Under this hypothesis, each amino acid in a protein is encoded by a specific sequence of three nucleotides, known as a codon.

This means that for every three nucleotides in the mRNA, there is a corresponding amino acid that gets added to the growing polypeptide chain during protein synthesis. Since the genetic code is read in triplets, it allows for a diverse set of amino acids to be specified, as there are 64 possible codons (given the four nucleotides: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil) that can be formed from combinations of three. This system ensures not only that proteins can be formed but also that there is some redundancy in the code, allowing certain codons to code for the same amino acid.

In summary, the statement that three nucleotides code for one amino acid accurately reflects the basic principle of the triplet hypothesis and aligns with how transcription and translation processes function in molecular biology.