What is a codon?

A codon is a trinucleotide sequence of DNA or RNA that corresponds to a specific amino acid or stop signal during protein synthesis. Codons allow genes, who are made up with four nucleotides, to be translated into proteins that are built with amino acids. There are in total 64 possible codons that can be made from the four nucleotides, of which 61 represent amino acids and three are stop signals.