**Correction**: A-T & C-G, not ~~A-C & G-T~~
The question arose from [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/k3b4ba/just_like_computers_speak_in_binary_1s_and_0s_the/ge2jzil?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), where I compared binary code to human DNA’s ACGT, then someone who knows more about IT than me made a good question.
If it’s not clear what I’m asking yet:
in binary you can have a lot of variation with the values 1 and 0
in human DNA (if we ignore RNA and (U)racil for now) there are four values, A, C, G, T. But since they bind strictly A-C & G-T doesn’t that technically leave DNA with only two factors to variate with?
Like: ~~A-C, A-C, G-T, A-C~~ A-T, A-T, C-G, A-T
Instead of: AGTATAC
In: Biology
This isn’t very ELI5, but it is difficult to do with this topic. The nucleotides in DNA thymine, cytosine, guanine and adenine are grouped into batches of three which act like a byte in a computer program for assembling a protein, each of these codons represents a start, an amino acid or a stop instruction resulting in the correct sequence of amino acids being assembled to complete the protein. – https://youtu.be/DfaPwWCvN5s
When replication happens, only one side of the helix gets copied.
The two ends of the helix are unique from one another, the body can tell them apart, and has a preferred direction that it will follow.
Because of this, even though they always come in pairs, swapping a pair would change the message being copied, because of this preferred direction.
It is not binary. Genetic code is interpreted as codons, groups of three nucleotides coding for one amino acid. A codon “ATT” codes for isoleucine, while “CTT” codes for leucine. This would not be the case if it was “binary”.
Indeed, DNA is actually split into two strands for transcription. A nucletiode pair is never read for transcription, only a strand of single nucleotides.
ATGATAC could be grouped into codons three different ways:
ATG_ATA_C, A_TGA_TAC and AT_GAT_AC. Each of these is called a reading frame. To add to the fun, the strand has a complementary strand, which would be CGTCGCA. DNA is directional, so that would be read from the opposite direction, in effect being ACGCTGC. And that, in turn, could be read in three different reading frames. In the end, each piece of DNA could be read in six different ways.
DNA runs in a twin strand (the double helix) so a strip of DNA is actually 2 strips of DNA joined at every nucleotide
Its still 4 option not binary just repeated in its opposition in the complementary strand of DNA.
So for instance you AGTATAC would be (for the sake of argument) the left hand strand and the right hand strand would read TCATATG
or when running parallel would look like
A-T
G-C
T-A
A-T
T-A
A-T
C-G
So it is 4 options not binary
DNA is not just the base pairs themselves, but the order of those base pairs. So there are four possible choices, not two. When DNA is copied in the cells (scientists call this replication), the two strands of the DNA pairs are separated and each strand acts as a template to create two perfect copies.
The other feature to remember is that the DNA code is translated into RNA (scientists call this transcription). The RNA code is then translated into a protein (called translation) which does the business of the cells.
Each group of three RNA bases is converted to a single amino acid, that then forms the protein. So in this case the code is not binary, but ternary and that dictates what the final protein product will be.
Doesn’t guanine pair with cytosine and adenine pair with thymine? Is the DNA pairing different than the transcription pairing?
There are definitely 4. A-T is not the same thing as T-A.
I’m trying to understand what your example is trying to say tbh.
AGTATAC binds with TCATATG, which, again, is not the same thing.
Not sure if this is sufficient, but if it isn’t then I might have to report.
DNA contains two messages paired. That means your A-T pair has direction. It’s either A to T or T to A. This is why it is indeed four possibilities.
If I gave you two pool balls, s stripe and solid. You are always holding a stripe and a solid, but the stripe could be in your left or right hand. It’s like that.
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