DNA

What is DNA? DNA is found in all living cells – It controls all functions inside a cell – It stores all the genetic information for an entire living organism – Single cell like an amoeba – Multi cell like a human

What does DNA mean? “Deoxy” = no oxygen “Ribo” = type of sugar “Nucleic” = in the nucleus “Acid” = type of chemical

What are the parts of DNA? D.N.A. - Deoxyribonucleic Acid Molecule made of: 1. Sugar 2. Phosphates 3. Combination of four nitrogen bases Either:a. Guanine b. Cytosine c. Thymine d. Adenine

What is the shape of DNA? Nitrogen bases pair up – Cytosine & Guanine – Thymine & Adenine Pairing creates a ladder shape Angle of bonds creates a twist Ladder and Twist produces the famous “Double Helix”

How does DNA make proteins? DNA is stored in nucleus, but proteins are made in ribosomes RNA, another nucleic acid, carries genetic code from nucleus to ribosomes and actually assembles proteins

What is RNA? RNA is Ribonucleic Acid – Has one strand instead of two strands – Has a different kind of sugar – Has Uracil instead of Thymine

What are the two kinds of RNA? – Messenger RNA – carries code – Transfer RNA – uses code to make proteins

What are proteins? Proteins are large organic molecules made of amino acids Proteins are important for growth, repair, and control in cells

How much DNA is in a human? Each cell contains roughly 2 meters of DNA. If you unravelled all of your DNA from all of your cells and laid out the DNA end to end, the strand would stretch from the Earth to the Sun hundreds of times (the sun is approximately 98 million miles away from Earth). You could fit 25,000 strands of DNA side by side in the width of a single adult hair.

How long is a human genetic code? There are approximately 3 billion (3,000,000,000) chemical letters (otherwise known as bases) in the DNA code in every cell in your body. This is a massive amount of information. It would fill 200 yellow pages in small type font. If you tried typing the whole genetic code out (typing at 200 letters per minute) it would take 29 years (without taking any breaks!).

What is the connection between DNA, chromosomes, and genes? DNA forms chromosomes Genes are on chromosomes Each gene codes for one protein 46 chromosomes 25,000 or so genes Cell Nucleus DNA

What do genes have to do with traits? – Gene - A segment of DNA that codes for a specific trait – Trait - A characteristic an organism can pass on to it’s offspring through DNA Gene