Term: codon

Pronunciation: (KOH-don)

Description:

A sequence of three nucleotides in a strand of DNA or RNA. Each codon corresponds to a specific amino acid (a building block of a protein). A protein is made from a long chain of amino acids. A codon can instruct the cell to start creating a protein chain, to add a specific amino acid to the growing protein chain, or to end the protein chain. The full set of codons is called the genetic code.