dna
Have you ever wondered why my eyes are this color? Or any questions about why we look the way we do. All of our characteristics come down to our genetics. Those genetics are family traits that are passed down through our bloodlines. It all comes down to what are considered the building blocks of life, DNA is the basic substance in the life forms you see around you, but it’s a complicated concept. Your DNA determines the color of your eyes, skin, hair, and activates functions such as sight and hearing. DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, which contains the biological aspects that make everyone individually different. DNA is contained in a single molecule, and there are millions of closely packed DNA cells in many forms of life, making it the building block of DNA. DNA. We’ve all heard about DNA for years, but what do you really know about it? What is DNA made of? In this article, we will talk about this mini miracle called DNA.
Like any good story, we have to start at the beginning. DNA was discovered in 1868 by a Swiss medical student named Johann Friedrich Miescher. Miescher was working with pus from a surgical will, where he was investigating white blood cells. It was in these white blood cells that he found the instruction booklet to make us who we are. It is important to note that DNA is in every living thing. Although Miescher discovered DNA in 1868, it would be more than 80 years before DNA was considered actual genetic material. After Miescher found DNA, the medical and scientific communities at the time felt that DNA was too simple to be genetic material. They would further discover that DNA is a long complex polymer made of repeating nucleotides.
So complex and long, in fact, a human chromosome number one has been recorded to be 85 nanometers long and contain 220 million base pairs. The double helix structure of DNA is made up of alternating sugar and phosphate bonds. Holding these sugar and phosphate bonds together is hydrogen. We mentioned earlier that in the early discoveries DNA was considered too simple to really be viable genetic material. This was thought to be due to the four basic materials found in all DNA. These are adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine with these four bases attached to the sugar/phosphate forming the complete nucleotide. This is just a brief definition of what the three most important letters of existence are, DNA.