DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid)

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) is the complex chemical constituted the molecules inside cells that carries genetic information and passes it from one generation to the next. DNA is contained in chromosomes, which are found in the nucleus of most cells. The gene is the unit of inheritance and different forms of the same gene are called alleles. The Human Genome Project has worked out the human DNA sequence, and its data are useful for forensic science and medical research.

Reference Definition by Ghr.nlm.nih.gov: DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA. Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA). 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.

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