Pass the Instructions!!!

In the last section, we discovered DNA’s secret. The secret is a method of storage that DNA uses to hold instructions that are used build and construct a plant or animal. In other words, all the information about a living organism is kept in DNA. When you think about it, this is something quite amazing. Especially when you start to ponder about other things.

For example, we know that life, itself, goes back well over 3 billion years ago as this picture shows.

In other words, DNA has been around using its method of storage for over 3 billion years. Check out the animation toward your right. One of active areas of research today involves trying figure out DNA acquired it method of storing information.

How DNA stores instructions is even more simplier. The answer lies in DNA’s bases.

As shown in the model above, DNA has four bases. The name of these bases are adenine, thymine, cystonine, and guanine. To make things easier, you can simply remember the bases as A,T,C,G. In DNA, the bases are paired together to form base pairs. Watson and Crick discovered that adenine binds to thymine, and guanine binds to cystonine. If you start from the left and count the base pairs in the above model from left to right, you’ll see that there are 7 base pairs. The number of base pairs determines the size of DNA.

The base pair sequence, however, determines what the instructions will be. That’s the key to DNA’s secret.

Any change to DNA’s base pair sequence will change the information and instructions that is contained within DNA. In later sections, we will see that this is the sole reason for the many human disorders and diseases that exist, such as sickle cell anemia. However, what we want to focus on now is important question. How do the instructions that DNA holds get carried out. The instructions that DNA owns are meaningless if those instructions don’t get carried out. If you are a parent, and your kids don’t carry out your instructions to a tee, then nothing gets done around the house. At your place of employment, if employees don’t do what they are requested, then nothing gets done at the job. The same holds for DNA. It’s instructions must be carried out.

It turns out that your cells carry out the instructions that are contained within DNA. You can think of the cell as a dedicated worker, always doing what it is told by DNA.

The picture above describes the basic relationship between DNA and a cell. However a more accurate picture is shown toward your right. Remember, DNA is inside a cell.

Eventually, those instructions are passed to the cell on the inside from DNA. The cell then makes and secretes a substance known as a protein. I’ m sure you’ve probably heard of proteins before. After the protein is made, the cell then uses that protein as a tool to complete the job that DNA wants done.

For example, inside your body you have an organ called a pancreas. The pancreas is made up of different cells. Every type of pancreas cell has DNA inside of it which instructs the pancreas cell to make and secrete a protein known as insulin. A second protein made by your pancreas is glucagon. These two proteins are released into the your body and then act on other organs which causes these organs to perform.

As one can see, both insulin and glucagon then in turn cause your liver, another organ, to act upon your blood. From this, it’s quite apparent that proteins are very important. Every day your cells are constantly producing proteins thru the commands it receives from DNA. This is something that has going on for millions of years, and it all starts with DNA giving the orders.

It seems that we all go thru life taking orders from someone or something. We’ve taken orders from our parents, our supervisors at our jobs, teachers, etc. It seems that your cells are no exception. They receive their orders from DNA, performing all of life’s required work, through the use of proteins. In the next section, we are going to take an up close look at proteins and see what they actually are, and the important role they play in creating and sustaining life.