Ask Science
Ask a science question, get a science answer.
Community Rules
Rule 1: Be respectful and inclusive.
Treat others with respect, and maintain a positive atmosphere.
Rule 2: No harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or trolling.
Avoid any form of harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or offensive behavior.
Rule 3: Engage in constructive discussions.
Contribute to meaningful and constructive discussions that enhance scientific understanding.
Rule 4: No AI-generated answers.
Strictly prohibit the use of AI-generated answers. Providing answers generated by AI systems is not allowed and may result in a ban.
Rule 5: Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
Adhere to community guidelines and comply with instructions given by moderators.
Rule 6: Use appropriate language and tone.
Communicate using suitable language and maintain a professional and respectful tone.
Rule 7: Report violations.
Report any violations of the community rules to the moderators for appropriate action.
Rule 8: Foster a continuous learning environment.
Encourage a continuous learning environment where members can share knowledge and engage in scientific discussions.
Rule 9: Source required for answers.
Provide credible sources for answers. Failure to include a source may result in the removal of the answer to ensure information reliability.
By adhering to these rules, we create a welcoming and informative environment where science-related questions receive accurate and credible answers. Thank you for your cooperation in making the Ask Science community a valuable resource for scientific knowledge.
We retain the discretion to modify the rules as we deem necessary.
view the rest of the comments
Proteins aren't the only end product of DNA. RNA is also important. See point 2.
Large parts of regulation are through structural elements at both DNA and RNA level that shortened genes would disrupt.
While your rate of error per base wouldn't be higher. The chance of that error mattering is higher. With 3 base codons the third is a "wobble base" that if changed will still likely code for the correct product or at least a similar one. Whereas with 2 base codons there is no wobble, any base change is more likely to result in some functional difference.
evolution is rarely concerned with being the most efficient but rather what works. Things are janky and a lot of the complexity of life stems from that jankiness.
Came to the comment section for your 3rd point, even with the “wobble” we have several single point mutations that are disastrous having only 2 BP per codon would be much worse and if anything I would assume the better medium would have more BP per codon with more redundancy