So we can sequence DNA, and we can compare the amino acids to match other strands, but how do we know it means anything bordering on similarity of what it actually represents?
I’m a programmer so the best I can give an analogy to is binary, I guess. Just because you have a bunch of 0s and 1s that match from one part of the machine to another doesn’t mean it acts the same among the “thing” it is a part of when compared to the other.
How do we know our DNA does with a level of certainty to say “this organism is similar to that one?”
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DNA isn’t just 1’s and 0’s. It’s an instruction set architecture for biology (sticking with the OP’s programming analogy). When we find ADD instructions in a plant that do the same thing as ADD instructions in humans (like producing a valuable molecule such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP)) that tells us that the plant and the human are running the same instruction set.
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