Question

The enzyme polynucleotide phosphorylase randomly assembles nucleotides into a polynucleotide phosphorylase to a solution of adenosine triphosphate and guanosine triphosphate, how many types of artificial mRNA 3 nucleotide codons would be possible?
A. 3
B. 4
C. 8
D. 16

Answer 1

mRNA is also known as messenger RNA. It is an RNA molecule which is single-stranded and is the starting material in the synthesis of proteins by the process of translation. The process of synthesizing messenger RNA is known as transcription.

Complete answer:
The enzyme polynucleotide phosphorylase is bi-functional in nature. The two major functions are phosphorolytic 3’ to 5’ exoribonuclease activity and oligonucleotide polymeric activity at the 3’ terminals. This enzyme is present in plants, animals as well as bacteria involved in the processing and degradation of m RNA. Since only two nucleotides, involving adenosine and guanosine are only provided, and since three nucleotides have to be synthesized. Therefore, guanosine and adenosine can be seen in a position in the codon, by assessing the possible combinations, gives rise to $2^3$ that is 8 codon types.
Thus, the most appropriate answer was found to be C, that is, eight types of artificial messenger RNA codons will be possible.

Note: The enzymes catalyzing the reaction is a phosphate group to a compound in any reaction is known as phosphorylase. There are several categories of phosphorylases namely, glycogen phosphorylases, starch phosphorylases, maltodextrin phosphorylase, purine nucleoside phosphorylase, and polynucleotide phosphorylase. This class of enzyme is different from phosphatase which is another class of enzymes, whose function is involved in removing the phosphate groups present in the compounds. Another class of enzyme known as phosphotransferase helps in transferring a phosphate group from a donor compound to an acceptor compound.