Genetic code dictionary

The genetic code dictionary was originally established from studies on the bacterium E. coli. It is now known to be the same for all organisms i.e., it is universal. The only exceptions occur for a few codons in mitochondria from a number of species. 

Most of the genetic information stored in the genome codes for the amino acid sequences of proteins. For these proteins to be expressed, a text in nucleic acid language therefore has to be translated into protein language. This is the origin of the use of the term translation to describe protein biosynthesis. The dictionary used for the translation is the genetic code. 

The genetic code is a dictionary that identifies the correspondence between a sequence of nucleotide bases and a sequence of amino adds. Each individual word in the code is composed of three nucleotide bases. These genetic words are called codons. 

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