Answer:
In the most general case of x bases and y bases per codon, the total number of possible codons is equal to xy . In the case of the hypothetical Martian life-forms, is the minimum codon length needed to specify 17 amino acids is 5 (25 = 32), with some redundancy (meaning that more than one codon could code for the same amino acid). For life on Earth, x = 4 and y = 3; thus the number of codons is 43, or 64. Because there are only 20 amino acids, there is a lot of redundancy in the code (there are several codons for each amino acid).
Explanation:
