What is DNA

The Building Blocks of Life

DNA is also known as deoxyribonucleic acid, pronounced dee-ox-ee-rye-bo-noo-clay-ic acid. It is a large molecule, shaped like a double helix and found primarily in the chromosomes of the cell nucleus.

The DNA contains the genetic information of the cell. The DNA forms a double helix, two elongated molecular chains (like staircases) that wrap around each other.

Our genetic code consists of approximately 3 billion letters that make up the instructions for all human genes. While this code varies among individual humans by only about 1%, these variations are a key factor in understanding what makes us susceptible to disease and what determines our lifespan and how we age.

The sections of DNA called genes instruct our cells to make proteins, which perform all of the body’s essential tasks, like breathing, and determine physical features, such as hair color. There are approximately 100,000 genes residing within each double helix of DNA.

DNA tells our cells what they have been, what they will continue to be, and what they will become.

The DNA is the blueprint for our life processes. Each cell of our bodies contains the complete genetic code for the whole body.  Human DNA is generally divided into 46 chromosomes (in pairs), each one containing characteristic genes that distinguish one chromosome from another. Derived from the Greek words "Chromo" for color and "Soma" for body, they are intensely colored bodies in our cells. One member of each pair comes from the mother through the egg and one member of each pair comes from the father through the sperm.

Human DNA is about 3 billion "base" pairs long. If you stretched the human chromosome out end-to-end, it would be about 6 feet. All 46 chromosomes are folded into a space of a few thousandths of a millimeter (super coil).

Theta In Depth

For Curriculum And
Application Details
Click Here