The three-letter nature of codons means that the four nucleotides found in mRNA — A, U, G, and C — can produce a total of 64 different combinations. Of these 64 codons, 61 represent amino acids, and the remaining three represent stop signals, which trigger the end of protein synthesis.

What do the 64 codons code for?

Codons are three letter genetic words: and the language of genes use 4 letters (=nitrogenous bases). Hence 64 words are there in genetic dictionary, to represent 20 amino acids that the biological organisms use.

Why are there 64 codons for 20 amino acids?

Because DNA consists of four different bases, and because there are three bases in a codon, and because 4 * 4 * 4 = 64, there are 64 possible patterns for a codon. Since there are only 20 possible amino acids, this means that there is some redundancy -- several different codons can encode for the same amino acid.