Question

a part of an mrna has the sequence aaa. use the table below to find which amino acid is coded for by aaa, then use the table to figure out which change to this sequence would indicate a silent mutation.

Explanation:

Step1: Locate the amino - acid for AAA

Find the row with the first base 'A', the column with the second base 'A', and then the sub - column with the third base 'A' in the mRNA codon table. We see that AAA codes for Lys (Lysine).

Step2: Identify silent mutations

A silent mutation is a change in the DNA or RNA sequence that does not result in a change in the amino - acid sequence. Looking at the table, codons AAA and AAG both code for Lysine. So a change from AAA to AAG would be a silent mutation.

Answer:

The amino acid coded for by AAA is Lysine (Lys). A change from AAA to AAG would indicate a silent mutation.