What is the most significant characteristics of DNA?

The information in DNA 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, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people. The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism, similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet appear in a certain order to form words and sentences.

DNA bases pair up with each other, A with T and C with G, to form units called base pairs. Each base is also attached to a sugar molecule and a phosphate molecule. Together, a base, sugar, and phosphate are called a nucleotide. Nucleotides are arranged in two long strands that form a spiral called a double helix. The structure of the double helix is somewhat like a ladder, with the base pairs forming the ladder’s rungs and the sugar and phosphate molecules forming the vertical sidepieces of the ladder.

An important property of DNA is that it can replicate, or make copies of itself. Each strand of DNA in the double helix can serve as a pattern for duplicating the sequence of bases. This is critical when cells divide because each new cell needs to have an exact copy of the DNA present in the old cell.

DNA is a double helix formed by base pairs attached to a sugar-phosphate backbone.

What is the most significant characteristics of DNA?

Credit: U.S. National Library of Medicine

For more information about DNA:

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), provides a fact sheet Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) that gives an introduction to this molecule.

What is the most significant characteristics of DNA?

StatedClearly offers a video introduction to DNA and how it works.

The New Genetics, a publication of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the NIH, discusses the structure of DNA and how it was discovered.

What is the most significant characteristics of DNA?

A basic explanation and illustration of DNA can be found on Arizona State University's "Ask a Biologist" website.

The Virtual Genetics Education Centre, created by the University of Leicester, offers additional information on DNA, genes, and chromosomes.

An overview of mitochondrial DNA is available from the Neuromuscular Disease Center at Washington University in St. Louis.

Topics in the Cells and DNA chapter

  • What is a cell?
  • What is DNA?
  • What is a gene?
  • What is a chromosome?
  • How many chromosomes do people have?
  • What is noncoding DNA?

Other chapters in Help Me Understand Genetics

The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice. Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health.

  • Your genome is made of a chemical called deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA for short.
  • DNA contains four basic building blocks or ‘bases’: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T).
  • The order, or sequence, of these bases form the instructions in the genome.
  • DNA is a two-stranded molecule.
  • DNA has a unique ‘double helix’ shape, like a twisted ladder.

What is the most significant characteristics of DNA?

An illustration to show the double helix structure of DNA.
Image credit: Genome Research Limited

  • Each strand is composed of long sequences of the four bases, A, C, G and T.
  • The bases on one strand of the DNA molecule pair together with complementary bases on the opposite strand of DNA to form the ‘rungs’ of the DNA ‘ladder’.
  • The bases always pair together in the same way, A with T, C with G.
  • Each base pair is joined together by hydrogen bonds.
  • Each strand of DNA has a beginning and an end, called 5’ (five prime) and 3’ (three prime) respectively.
  • The two strands run in the opposite direction (antiparallel) to each other so that one runs 5’ to 3’ and one runs 3’ to 5’, they are called the sense strand and the antisense strand, respectively.
  • The strands are separated during DNA replication.
  • This double helix structure was first discovered by Francis Crick and James Watson with the help of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins.
  • The human genome is made of 3.2 billion bases of DNA but other organisms have different genome sizes.

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What is the significant of DNA?

In all living things, DNA is essential for inheritance, coding for proteins, and providing instructions for life and its processes. DNA dictates how a human or animal develops and reproduces, and eventually dies. Human cells normally contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46 chromosomes in each cell.

What are the three characteristics of DNA?

DNA building blocks have three components:.
Phosphate,.
Deoxyribose, and..
Four nitrogenous bases: Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, and Thymine..

What is A unique characteristic of DNA?

DNA is a two-stranded molecule. DNA has a unique 'double helix' shape, like a twisted ladder.

What are four characteristics of DNA?

The information in DNA 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, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people.