Genetics Research 101

In case there is someone out there reading this and in case that person does not know the first thing about genetics, here is a basic intro:

Every single living thing is made up of cells. In most of those cells, there is a small container called a nucleus. Inside that nucleus is DNA – the genetic code. If you've gone to high school in the last 50 years, you've probably seen something like the picture on the right. DNA is made up of two strands of complimentary codes: A is complemented by T and C with G. An A/T or a C/G forms a base pair. The genetic code that makes up a human consists of about 3.2 BILLION base pairs.

One major task of the cell is to maintain and use this DNA. It maintains it by replication, making a complete copy of the entire sequence. This happens in cells that are dividing (skin cells, cancer cells, etc). To use the DNA, the strands are temporarily broken apart and "read" by a protein called RNA polymerase. RNA polymerase creates a new complimentary strand using the original DNA as a template. This process is called "transcription" and the new strand is called RNA. The next step is "translation", the RNA is translated into a sequence of molecules called amino acids that make up a protein. Three nucleotides (a nucleotide is one A T G or C) code for one amino acid. Proteins can be several hundred to several thousand amino acids long.

So, there you have it. Next in this series: How do cells know when to transcribe DNA into RNA?

Also, this photo on the left depicts the central dogma of molecular biology: DNA is transcribed into RNA and RNA is translated into proteins. Why are proteins so important? Well, they do just about every dang thing a cell could ask for and more.

Oh, and feel free to ask questions! I love questions!