DNA gets the first part of its name from our first ingredient, the sugar molecule, which is called deoxyribose, but all the really significant stuff, the genetic coding that makes you you, is found among the four nitrogenous bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. Two, a phosphate group and three, one of four nitrogen bases. We're gonna need three things: One, a five carbon sugar molecule. These chromosomes are packed together tightly with proteins in the nucleus of the cell. I'm gonna go out on a limb here, and assume that you are a human, in which case every body cell that you have, or somatic cell in you has 46 chromosomes, each containing one big DNA molecule. It's a 6 billion letter code that provides the assembly instructions for everything that you are, and it does the same thing for pretty much every other living thing. DNA is what stores our genetic instructions, the information that programs all of our cell's activities. Mind blown, yet? Hey, you wanna make one? Of course you know, I'm talking about deoxyribonucleic acid, known to its friends as DNA. Now consider that there are probably 50 trillion cells in my body right now, laid end-to-end, the DNA in those cells would stretch to the sun, not once, but 600 times. So multifariously awesome that if you took all of it from just one of our cells and untangled it, it would be taller than me. It's so complex that we didn't even know for sure what it looked like until about sixty years ago. It's pretty much the most complicated molecule that exists, and potentially the most important one. ![]() You really can tell just by looking at it how sort of important and amazing it is. Hank: It's just beautiful, isn't it? It's, it's just, it's, it's mesmerizing. ![]() Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet? Hank introduces us to that wondrous molecule deoxyribonucleic acid - also known as DNA - and explains how it replicates itself in our cells.Ĭrash Course is on Patreon! You can support us directly by signing up at
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