Receiver. Catcher. Satellite dish. Radio. Receptor. What do they all have in common? You probably already guessed that they all sit there, waiting to get something: Information, baseballs, television and radio signals, and …. ligands? A receptor in our body is just like all the other receivers in the world. These proteins sit within the [Read More →]
When you hear the word penetrance, you might think about sex. But in genetics penetrance refers to how strong your genes are acting. Imagine someone says a gene has 20% penetrance. What that means is that 20% of the people who carry the gene, will actually show the effects of that gene. So when we [Read More →]
Every machine needs some source of energy. Whether it’s a battery, engine or a plug, energy is converted to some usable form. The body is not different. It won’t surprise you to know that food is our energy source, but it’s at the molecular level that we use food. For our cells to get that [Read More →]
When I talked about what a gene is, I mentioned that a gene can be transcribed from DNA to RNA and then translated from RNA into a protein. A very important part of that process is the genetic code. The genetic code is like the secret language of DNA, it’s how DNA actually stores information. [Read More →]
Now-a-days, when we think of mutations, we’re likely to think of super heros, with fantastic abilities to swim under water or shoot lasers from their eyes. In reality genetic mutations occur all the time, and for the most part, go unnoticed. A mutation means any change in DNA sequence. One commonly studied mutation is a [Read More →]
Did you every wonder: How is our personal identity defined by DNA if we all have the same genes? Well, it’s because every gene comes in many varieties – they’re called alleles. Even the tiniest change in the gene makes it a new allele. Sometimes we can predict what that change means, but mostly it [Read More →]
On any given day we’re likely to read about the new discovery of a gene for… such and such a disease, or trait. So genes do things, but how do they do things, and just what is a gene actually? Well, it turns out that’s a hard question to answer, and the definition is constantly [Read More →]
So far we’ve been comparing DNA to a book. The nucleotides are like letters and their sequence contains information, just like letters do when writing. But of course there is more to a book than just grammar. There is also the structure of a book to consider. To really appreciate how complex and large DNA [Read More →]
If DNA is the book of life, what language is it written in? and how is it read? If every cell of our body has DNA, how are different cells created? We’ve already discussed how DNA is made up of many many nucleotides stringed together, and how two strands compliment each other. That’s what DNA [Read More →]
There are some tools which may only do one thing, but they do it really good. Like how there is a screwdriver available for every screw, and a wrench for every bolt. Now if you want to copy DNA, because every new cell needs it’s own copy of the instruction manual, you need a tool [Read More →]
