how DNA passes on genetic information?
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DNA is made of molecules that serve as letters and there are little protein machines that read and copy those letters.
DNA _is_ the genetic information. Every cell has a copy which it uses to make proteins which are the things that make cells work. Therefore, every living cell’s functioning depends on what DNA it has. When cells divide each of the new cells get a copy of DNA from the dividing cell (DNA doubles itself). When human embryos are made, two cells with DNA from mother and father are combined.
DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. That substance IS your genes.
More specifically, DNA tells the cells of your body how to do things like a blueprint. Specifically, how to make other chemical compounds.
Collections of this material form complete “instructions”, if you will, for things like having red hair. “Red hair” is the phenotype (visual expression) of a set of DNA and we call that a gene.
DNA is made of molecules that serve as letters and there are little protein machines that read and copy those letters.
DNA _is_ the genetic information. Every cell has a copy which it uses to make proteins which are the things that make cells work. Therefore, every living cell’s functioning depends on what DNA it has. When cells divide each of the new cells get a copy of DNA from the dividing cell (DNA doubles itself). When human embryos are made, two cells with DNA from mother and father are combined.
DNA _is_ the genetic information. Every cell has a copy which it uses to make proteins which are the things that make cells work. Therefore, every living cell’s functioning depends on what DNA it has. When cells divide each of the new cells get a copy of DNA from the dividing cell (DNA doubles itself). When human embryos are made, two cells with DNA from mother and father are combined.
DNA is made of molecules that serve as letters and there are little protein machines that read and copy those letters.
DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. That substance IS your genes.
More specifically, DNA tells the cells of your body how to do things like a blueprint. Specifically, how to make other chemical compounds.
Collections of this material form complete “instructions”, if you will, for things like having red hair. “Red hair” is the phenotype (visual expression) of a set of DNA and we call that a gene.
DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. That substance IS your genes.
More specifically, DNA tells the cells of your body how to do things like a blueprint. Specifically, how to make other chemical compounds.
Collections of this material form complete “instructions”, if you will, for things like having red hair. “Red hair” is the phenotype (visual expression) of a set of DNA and we call that a gene.
Each of your cells has a long long strand of DNA in it, which stretched out is about 6 feet long (seriously).
That DNA is made up of a long chain of 4 different molecules, which get abbreviated with the letters A,G,C, and T. The order that these molecules are in on the chain stores information on how to make different proteins, which are the molecules your body uses to pretty much “do” everything cells need to do (like moving, burning sugar for energy, making hormones, digesting food, etc). I don’t think it’s useful to get into the specifics of how it stores this information, but I’ll say that proteins themselves are made of long chains of smaller molecules, and that every group of three “letters” stands for a different one of these smaller molecules.
DNA has one other amazing ability–it can replicate itself. When cells divide, it copies itself and you end up with two copies of the same strand of DNA in the two new cells. When our bodies are making sperm or eggs, they are formed in a special way where a randomly selected half of the DNA chain is put in them, which combines with the randomly selected half in the other one when a baby is conceived. This means that babies have 50/50 of their DNA from their mom and dad, but exactly which parts of it come from which parent is random.
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