The sequence of bases in DNA that provide the instructions for a cell to form a protein is the

• A. Haploid
• B. Genetic code
• C. Genome
• D. Gene

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is how DNA tells a cell which protein to make. That instruction set is the genetic code—the system that translates sequences of bases into a specific sequence of amino acids to form a protein. In gene expression, DNA is first transcribed into messenger RNA, and then the ribosome reads the RNA three bases at a time (codons). Each codon corresponds to a particular amino acid (or a signal to start/stop), so the order of codons determined by the DNA sequence dictates the order of amino acids in the protein. That is why this option, describing the coded relationship between bases and amino acids, best fits the question. The other terms refer to broader or different concepts: a gene is a DNA segment that can code for a product, a genome is the entire genetic material of an organism, and haploid describes a chromosome number, not the instruction system for building proteins.