DNA
An introduction to DNA.
Short simple articles which explain the role of DNA, what it is and how it’s structure allows it to provide the blueprint for all life.
What is DNA?
DNA is a long thin molecule found in all living things*. It acts as an instruction book for the organism it is in. Not only does it carry the information needed to make an organism but also all the information needed for it to change, live from day to day and reproduce.
Imagine the DNA in a tomato plant and the DNA in a human as two different instruction books. Both of these instruction books are made of the same material and written in the same language, but one contains all the information needed to make and run a tomato plant and the other the information needed to make and run a human.
DNA acts much like an instruction book.
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The information is stored in a code ‘written’ along the strand of DNA.
*Except some viruses that have its very close relative RNA instead. RNA is also able to store information in the form of a code written along it and in this context performs exactly the same function as DNA.
