Written by Mason LaMarche
DNA is made up of 4 different base pairs: Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Guanine (G), and Cytosine (C). Within these bases, the code for life is contained! DNA is transcribed into RNA which is translated into a protein. A protein is made up of several amino acids that are linked together. Proteins are critical biological molecules which do numerous functions in organisms. This month, let’s pretend we are ribosomes reading RNA! Given a strand of RNA, use the abbreviated codon table to decode the message. NOTE: RNA does not have Thymine, instead it has a molecule known as Uracil (U).
Codons are read in groups of 3 starting with a special codon known as the Start codon (AUG).
Stop codons signal the end of the protein and, in this game, the end of the message.
The message to decode is below! There are two words in this message.
Answer: MELE KALIKIMAKA. If you have never heard this phrase, go ahead and listen to Bing Crosby’s classic holiday carol!