Britannica
Sources used in this answer
How many nucleotides are in a codon?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Amino acid
The structure and function of amino acids.
A codon consists of three adjacent nucleotides. These sequences, which are found in DNA and RNA, either encode information for the production of a specific amino acid or function as a stop signal to terminate translation during protein synthesis.1