What role does the codon play in initiating protein synthesis?

The codon is a sequence of three nucleotides in mRNA that codes for a specific amino acid. During protein synthesis, the codon acts as a signal to start the process of translating the genetic code into a protein. It initiates the binding of the appropriate transfer RNA (tRNA) molecule carrying the corresponding amino acid to the ribosome, where the amino acids are linked together to form a protein.