∞ generated and posted on 2016.01.14 ∞
Nucleic acid that forms into a double helix and serves as the hereditary material of cellular organisms.
Short for , chromosomes consist predominantly of DNA and proteins, with the DNA supplying and the proteins otherwise serving to support DNA functioning. The following is a not very chemical introduction to what DNA is all about, though beware the with the shapes of proteins:
This arrangement of DNA working as the functional aspect of chromosomes and indeed serving as the functional center of cells, while proteins along with RNA play numerous supporting roles, is just as we see in . That is, much of the computer serves to support information-encoding memory devices (e.g., the ), protecting those devices, reading them, copying information to them for storage, performing encoded instructions, etc.
This DNA is usually found as "" (i.e., ), though in certain viruses can be found instead as molecule (). Only the double-stranded variety consistently forms into the familiar double helix between two strands. Even ssDNA, however, occasionally is found as dsDNA since formation of the double helix represents the basis of how DNA is replicated. In addition, base pairing and therefore double helix formation also can occur within local sections of ssDNA strands.
The discovery of the double helix was one of the great in the of biology. It allowed development of an understanding of the connections between genotype, phenotype, and changes that tend to occur in both over time. Indeed, the very nature of genotype was not understood until the discovery of the double helix, other than that genotype somehow underlay and gave rise to phenotype.
A lot is said, very quickly, in the following video, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but alas the jokes really are…
The following video discusses the basic concepts of heredity: