> As I understand it DNA and RNA store their information in the form of certain amino acids.
Actually, information is stored as RNA, with DNA as long-term storage (mnemonic: RAM nucleic acid vs disk nucleic acid) and then amino acids are assembled into proteins (hardware) based on that information. Proteins only function as information storage in pathological cases like prions.
But yes, if 'alien' life used the same 20 amino acids, and especially if it has the same mapping from 64 nucleic acid triplets to 20 amino acids, then that's confirmation that it's actually just a earth microbe that escaped or was left behind.
Actually, information is stored as RNA, with DNA as long-term storage (mnemonic: RAM nucleic acid vs disk nucleic acid) and then amino acids are assembled into proteins (hardware) based on that information. Proteins only function as information storage in pathological cases like prions.
But yes, if 'alien' life used the same 20 amino acids, and especially if it has the same mapping from 64 nucleic acid triplets to 20 amino acids, then that's confirmation that it's actually just a earth microbe that escaped or was left behind.