The genetic code is considered degenerate because most amino acids are encoded by at least two different codons. Some researchers have hypothesized that, during evolution, the genetic code has been optimized for its intended use in different organisms. Reseachers can study this by examining the relationship between the frequency with which an amino acid appears in all the proteins in an organism and the total number of codons for an amino acid. An optimized organism would use amino acids in proportion to the number of codons for each amino acid.
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