Talk:Standard genetic code

Chris, I think this is worse and that we need to keep the three bases together. I understand what the table says, but I don't believe inexperienced people will

I was thinking more along the lines of extra spacing between columns 2 and 3, and between 4,5 and between 6,7 so that we have "sets of 2 columns" with space between them. Also, bigger boxes would be nice. Once that is done, we can probably remove the borders too. David E. Volk 14:27, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

I guess there could be a table for beginners and experts. Another thing that would be nice is to have the types of amino acids colour coded. i.e. polar non polar etc. This allows for a quick visual key to determine the severity of any base change in a codon. Some changes in the second base do not lead to severe changes in function. Chris Day 14:35, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

If we stick with the new table, we could insert directions on how to use it. I was also thinking that we should talk about mutations and how some of them have no effect, ie same amino acid, while some are conservative, Leu to Ile for example, and others destructive and how this leads to non-functioning enzymes for example. We can also mention that there is more evolutionary information in the gene than the protein for this reason too. We could color code if I remove the links to the amino acids, but I kind of like having them there for easy clicking to see what they are. David E. Volk 14:43, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

Agree that links are good. Why would background colours interfere with the links though? They can be very subtle. Another thing to include might be the non standard codons (especially in mitochondria). Or would that be a seperate article? Chris Day 14:56, 19 June 2008 (CDT)

Ah, I see, Background colors! would work great. Can you remind me what the format is? bgc=#FF0434 or something like that.