DNA WORLD

                            DNA WORLD

WHAT IS DNA ?

DNA is  Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid. It is a  self-replicating material in every living organism.  It is a carrier of all genetic information of a person  needed for organisms to develop, grow, survive, and reproduce. It’s a one long molecule that contains our genetic “code,” or recipe. This recipe is the starting point for our development, but DNA’s interaction with outside influences such as our lifestyle, environment, and nutrition ultimately form the human being.

DISCOVERY OF DNA

• In 1866 – Before the many significant discoveries and findings, Gregor Mendel, who is known as the “Father of Genetics,” was actually the first to suggest that characteristics are passed down from generation to generation. Mendel coined the terms we all know today as recessive and dominant.
• In 1869 – Friedrich Miescher identified the “nuclein” by isolating a molecule from a cell nucleus that would later become known as DNA.
• 1881 – Nobel Prize winner and German biochemist Albrecht Kossel, who is credited with naming DNA, identified nuclein as a nucleic acid. He also isolated those five nitrogen bases that are now considered to be the basic building blocks of DNA and RNA: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T) (which is replaced by uracil (U) in RNA).
• 1882 – Walther Flemming devoted research and time to cytology, which is the study of chromosomes. He discovered mitosis  systematic study of the division of chromosomes. His observations that chromosomes double is significant to the later-discovered theory of inheritance.

• Early 1900s – Theodor Boveri and Walter Sutton were independently working on what’s now known as the Boveri-Sutton chromosome theory, or the chromosomal theory of inheritance. Their findings are fundamental in our understanding of how chromosomes carry genetic material and pass it down from one generation to the next.
• 1902 – Mendel’s theories were finally associated with a human disease by Sir Archibald Edward Garrod, who published the first findings from a study on recessive inheritance in human beings in 1902. Garrod opened the door for our understanding of genetic disorders resulting from errors in chemical pathways in the body.
• 1944 – Oswald Avery first outlined DNA as the transforming principle, which essentially means that it’s DNA, not proteins, that transform cell properties .
• 1944 – 1950 – Erwin Chargaff discovered that DNA is responsible for heredity and that it varies between species. His discoveries, known as Chargaff’s Rules, proved that guanine and cytosine units, as well as adenine and thymine units, were the same in double-stranded DNA, and he also discovered that DNA varies among species.
• 1951 – Roslind Franklin’s work in X-ray crystallography began when she started taking X-ray diffraction photographs of DNA. Her images showed the helical form, which was confirmed by Watson and Crick nearly two years later. Her findings were only acknowledged posthumously.

• 1953 – Watson and Crick published on DNA’s double helix structure that twists to form the ladder-like structure.

• STRUCTURE  OF DNA

DNA is made up of molecules of known as nucleotides. Each nucleotide consists of  sugar and phosphate group with  nitrogen bases. These nitrogen bases are  of  four types, including:

• adenine (A)
• cytosine (C)
• thymine (T)
• guanine (G)  

• Human DNA is made up of nearly 3 billion base pairs, and about 99 percent of them are the same in every human. It’s the sequence of  bases that determines what information is available to both build and maintain.

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The Future of DNA

The future of DNA has great potential. DNA  are already enabling the diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases. Science is also hopeful that medicine will advance to be able to leverage the power of our own cells to fight disease.  For example, gene therapy is designed to introduce genetic material into cells to compensate for abnormal genes or to make a therapeutically beneficial protein.Researchers also continue to use DNA sequencing technology to learn more about everything from combating infectious disease outbreaks to improving nutritional security.

 Every new discovery related to DNA lends to further advancement in the idea of precision medicine, a relatively new way doctors are approaching healthcare through the use of genetic and molecular information to guide their approach to medicine.