DNA-WHAT TO KNOW

 



DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material found in humans and most other species. It is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, with over 99 percent of them being the same in all people. These bases are in a specific order that contains information about constructing and sustaining an organism, much like the letters in the alphabet come together in an order to form words and sentences. DNA bases are held together attached to each other through base pairing, which is further held to another molecule called sugar and phosphate. Whereas a nucleotide is just a base, a sugar, and phosphate, the double helix is two long strands of nucleotides, much like a ladder whose rungs are the base pairs and whose vertical sidepieces are sugar and phosphate molecules.


Pictorial representation of DNA and RNA along with their bases




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