This animation describes how many nucleotides encode a single amino acid, which is a key part of the genetic code.

Once the structure of DNA was discovered, the next challenge for scientists was to determine how nucleotide sequences coded for amino acids. As shown in the animation, a set of three nucleotides, a triplet code, is the minimum necessary to encode all 20 amino acids.

Depending on students’ background, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to discuss different features.