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In molecular biology, a stop codon (or termination codon) is a codon (nucleotide triplet within messenger RNA) that signals the termination of the translation process of the current protein. [1] Most codons in messenger RNA correspond to the addition of an amino acid to a growing polypeptide chain, which may ultimately become a protein; stop ...
Stop codons are also called "termination" or "nonsense" codons. They signal release of the nascent polypeptide from the ribosome because no cognate tRNA has anticodons complementary to these stop signals, allowing a release factor to bind to the ribosome instead.
There are 64 different codons in the genetic code and the below tables; most specify an amino acid. [6] Three sequences, UAG, UGA, and UAA, known as stop codons, [note 1] do not code for an amino acid but instead signal the release of the nascent polypeptide from the ribosome. [7]
An open reading frame (ORF) is a reading frame that has the potential to be transcribed into RNA and translated into protein. It requires a continuous sequence of DNA which may include a start codon, through a subsequent region which has a length that is a multiple of 3 nucleotides, to a stop codon in the same reading frame.
In the context of gene finding, the start-stop definition of an ORF therefore only applies to spliced mRNAs, not genomic DNA, since introns may contain stop codons and/or cause shifts between reading frames. An alternative definition says that an ORF is a sequence that has a length divisible by three and is bounded by stop codons.
Although these stop codons are triplets just like ordinary codons, they are not decoded by tRNAs. It was discovered by Mario Capecchi in 1967 that, instead, tRNAs do not ordinarily recognize stop codons at all, and that what he named "release factor" was not a tRNA molecule but a protein. [1]
For example, if there were two bases per codon, then only 16 amino acids could be coded for (4²=16). Because at least 21 codes are required (20 amino acids plus stop) and the next largest number of bases is three, then 4³ gives 64 possible codons, meaning that some degeneracy must exist. [2]: 521–522
Leaky termination in these genes leads to translational readthrough of up to 10% of the stop codons of these genes. Some of these genes encode functional protein domains in their readthrough extension so that new protein isoforms can arise. This process has been termed 'functional translational readthrough'. [9]