title: The most probable number of blocks for the partitions of the set of codons could have determined the number of standard amino acids.
abstract: Given a genetic code formed by 64 codons, we calculate the number of partitions of the set of encoding amino acid codons. When there are 0-3 stop codons, the results indicate that the most probable number of partitions is 19 and/or 20. Then, assuming that in the early evolution the genetic code could have had random variations, we suggest that the most probable number of partitions of the set of encoding amino acid codons determined the actual number 20 of standard amino acids.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Diego Portales, Avda. Ejército 141, Santiago, Chile. dino.salinas@udp.cl
authors.forename: Dino G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Salinas
authors.forename: Mauricio O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Gallardo
authors.forename: Manuel I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Osorio
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003062:Codon; D011336:Probability
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D003062:Codon