Codons and Anticodons

Codons and Anticodons

Codons and Anticodons - During translation the codons of mRNA pair with complementary anticodons of tRNA.

Since mRNA is read in a polar manner in the 5'-->3' direction, the codons are also written in the 5'-->3' direction.

Thus the codon AUG is written as 5'AVG3'.

The corresponding anticodon on tRNA should therefore be written as S'CAU3',

In such a configuration the first bases of both codon and anticodon would be the ones at the 5' end and third bases at the 3' end.

Often, however, the anticodon is written in the 3'-->5' direction so as to bring about an easier correlation between the bases of the codon and anticodon.

Thus the anticodon for AVG is written as 3' UAC 5' or, more simply, UAC. Here the first letter in the codon is at the 5' end and the first letter of the anticodon at the 3' end.

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