Which of the following best describes the role of triplets in protein synthesis as given in the material?

• A. Triplets encode lipids
• B. Triplets encode carbohydrates
• C. Sets of three nucleobases form a Triplet code that codes for amino acids
• D. Triplets do not relate to amino acids

Answer: (C)

Triplets are the building blocks of the genetic code in protein synthesis. Each set of three nucleotides forms a codon in the messenger RNA, and each codon specifies which amino acid should be added next to the growing protein chain. The ribosome reads the mRNA three bases at a time and matches each codon with its corresponding transfer RNA carrying the correct amino acid, linking them together to form a polypeptide. There is a one-to-one relationship between codons and amino acids (with some redundancy where multiple codons code for the same amino acid), plus special codons that start or stop translation. Since lipids and carbohydrates are not determined by these nucleotide triplets, the role described here is specifically about encoding amino acids.