What is the reason for the genetic code being described as universal?

The genetic code is described as universal because the same triplet codes, also known as codons, consistently correspond to the same amino acids across nearly all organisms. This means that for a given sequence of three nucleotides in mRNA, the corresponding amino acid will be the same, whether the organism is a bacterium, a plant, or an animal. This universality highlights the evolutionary connections among different forms of life and underlines the fundamental biochemical processes that are shared across species.

This universal aspect of the genetic code allows scientists to use genes from one species in another, which is key to applications like genetic engineering and the production of recombinant proteins. However, while the concept emphasizes the consistency of codons and their respective amino acids, it does not imply that all organisms produce the same enzymes or share identical DNA sequences, as diversity at the genetic level is vast.