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The Secret Code

Discover the fascinating world of DNA, the foundation of life, and how genes carry information across generations, determine traits, and replicate within cells. Explore key scientists, DNA structure, replication process, and intriguing facts about our genetic blueprint.

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The Secret Code

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  1. DNA The Secret Code

  2. Genes • Genes, which are sections of DNA, are known to: • Carry information from one generation to the next. • Put that information to work by determining the heritable characteristics of organisms. • Be easily copied, because all of a cell’s genetic information is replicated (copied) every time a cell divides.

  3. How do we know that all of our genetic information comes from DNA? Thanks to many scientists and many experiments over the last ≈ 80 years. • Griffith • Hershey and Chase • Franklin • Watson and Crick

  4. DNA • Nucleic Acid: Deoxyribonucleic Acid (polymer) • Made up of units (monomers) called nucleotides. • Three components: • 5-carbon sugar: Deoxyribose • A phosphate group • A nitrogenous base Nucleotide

  5. DNA Structure • Called a double helix • Twisted Ladder • Backbone (sides) : 5-carbon sugar and phosphate groups • Rungs: nitrogenous bases

  6. Nitrogenous bases • Our alphabet has 26 letters • Can create many different words  many different sentences  billions of different books of information. • DNA’s alphabet has 4 letters • A, T, C, and G • Create 3 letter words  Amino acids  proteins  billions of different organisms

  7. Nitrogenous bases • Purines: • Adenine • Guanine • Pyrimidines: • Thymine • Cytosine

  8. DNA Replication Replication: The process of making a copy of DNA The “parent” molecule has two complementary strands of DNA. Each is base paired by hydrogen bonding with its specific partner: A with T and G with C

  9. DNA Unzips The first step in replication is the separation of the two strands. An enzyme called DNA helicase unzips DNA

  10. New nucleotides added Each parental strand now serves as a template that determines the order of the bases along a new complementary strand. an enzyme called DNA polymerase adds the bases

  11. Gaps are closed (zipped closed) The nucleotides are connected to form the sugar-phosphate backbones of the new strands. DNA ligase Each “daughter” DNA molecule consists of one parental strand and one new strand….semi-conservative

  12. Reviewing DNA Replication • Replication #2 • Replication #3 and more

  13. Here are some interesting Facts! • A single strand of DNA (one chromosome) is about 2 inches long when uncoiled. • Each human cell contains 46 chromosomes (6 to 9 feet of DNA) • Your body contains 75-100 trillion of cells. • All of your DNA (when uncoiled and tied together) could make about 6000 trips from the Earth to the Moon.

  14. A few more cool things about DNA • It takes about 8 hours for one of your cells to copy all of its DNA. • Our entire DNA sequence is called a Genome…and there is an estimated 3,000,000,000 DNA bases • This would take up about 3GB of storage • If you could type 60 wpm, 8 hours/day…it would take you 50 years to type this. • 99.9% of our DNA is the same…it is the 0.01% that makes you who you are!

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