{"id":75345,"date":"2022-08-16T20:45:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T00:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=75345"},"modified":"2022-08-23T14:24:03","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T18:24:03","slug":"how-does-dna-store-genetic-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-dna-store-genetic-information\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does DNA Store Genetic Information?\ufffc\ufffc"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How does DNA store genetic information? How do genes direct the production of proteins that make up the structure of our bodies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>DNA contains instructions for building proteins that make up just about everything in your body. Specifically, genetic information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four base chemicals called nucleotides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s how DNA molecules encode biological information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-dna-structure-explained\"><strong>DNA Structure<\/strong> <strong>Explained<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>How does DNA store genetic information? DNA is made of four <em>nucleotides<\/em>: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). However, <em>it isn\u2019t nucleotides themselves that encode genetic information\u2014four chemicals aren\u2019t nearly enough to account for the enormous array of proteins that our bodies produce\u2014but rather the order in which those nucleotides are arranged. <\/em>Therefore, in order to decode genetic instructions, scientists first had to learn how to <em>sequence<\/em> genes\u2014in other words, to determine exactly which nucleotides are present and in what order.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In 1977, Cambridge biochemist Frederick Sanger fully sequenced a genome for the first time. <\/strong>Using specially tagged nucleotides, he was able to follow along as the virus replicated itself, painstakingly copying down the approximately 5,400 base pairs of a virus called Phi X174. By doing so, he was able to match genes with the proteins they created\u2014in essence, he learned how to read the virus\u2019s genetic code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Form Fits Function<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.encyclopedia.com\/science-and-technology\/biology-and-genetics\/biology-general\/functional-morphology\">Form fits function<\/a>\u201d is an old maxim of biology. It means that because all the parts of our bodies work together like a complex organic machine, you can deduce what each part of that machine does from how it\u2019s built\u2014for example, we can tell that red blood cells carry oxygen because they have binding sites for oxygen molecules.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br>Scientists were using \u201cform fits function\u201d logic when they dismissed nucleic acids in favor of proteins. They were looking for a type of molecule that could encode very complicated data (the blueprints for an entire human body), and proteins can have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/scitable\/topicpage\/protein-structure-14122136\/\">extremely complex structures<\/a>, so they seemed like more likely candidates than the relatively simple nucleic acids.&nbsp;<br><br>A nucleotide is like a single letter\u2014each one has little meaning on its own, so scientists dismissed them as useless. Watson, Crick, and Franklin\u2019s work showed how DNA strings many \u201cletters\u201d (nucleotides) together to form coherent \u201csentences\u201d (genes)\u2014they discovered how DNA\u2019s form fits its function. The structure of DNA is perfect for encoding complex genetic information: It\u2019s a stable molecule thanks to the bonded nucleotide pairs, it\u2019s easy for enzymes to interact with, and it can encode any amount of data using different combinations of nucleotides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How does DNA store genetic information? How do genes direct the production of proteins that make up the structure of our bodies? DNA contains instructions for building proteins that make up just about everything in your body. Specifically, genetic information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four base chemicals called nucleotides. Here&#8217;s how DNA molecules encode biological information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[715],"class_list":["post-75345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-the-gene","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Does DNA Store Genetic Information?\ufffc\ufffc - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"DNA contains instructions for building proteins that make up just about everything in your body. Here&#039;s how DNA stores genetic information.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-does-dna-store-genetic-information\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Does DNA Store Genetic Information?\ufffc\ufffc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DNA contains instructions for building proteins that make up just about everything in your body. 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