Thegenetic codeis the set of rules used by livingcellstotranslateinformation encoded within genetic material (DNAormRNAsequences) intoproteins. Translation is accomplished by theribosome, which linksamino acidsin an order specified bymessenger RNA(mRNA), usingtransfer RNA(tRNA) molecules to carry amino acids and to read the mRNA threenucleotidesat a time. The genetic code is highly similar among all organisms and can be expressed in a simple table with 64 entries.[1]

The code defines how sequences of nucleotide triplets, calledcodons, specify which amino acid will be added next duringprotein synthesis. With some exceptions,[2]a three-nucleotide codon in a nucleic acid sequence specifies a single amino acid. The vast majority ofgenesare encoded with a single scheme (see theRNA codon table). That scheme is often referred to as the canonical or standard genetic code, or simplythegenetic code, thoughvariant codes(such as in humanmitochondria) exist.

While the "genetic code" determines a protein's amino acid sequence, other genomic regions determinewhen and where these proteins are producedaccording to various "gene regulatory codes".