You're one of a kind. And, you fit in with the cool crowd. Both are true, when it comes to your DNA. Your DNA helps create the instruction manual the body uses to build human parts and organs, such as the heart and lungs. But DNA also directs the making of those features that set you apart: your hair color, the shape of your nose, that strange laugh of yours that people secretly like.
So how does it all work, DNA-wise? You're about to find out. Watch this video, featuring two Duke University geneticists, to discover more about DNA. Then, answer the question in the Take Notes box, below. You may read the transcript to the video, and watch the segment, as many times as you like.
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So DNA is a set of letters that make us who we are. You can think of it like a big book with lots of letters and each of those letters are nucleotides that make up DNA.
A gene is a particular part of that story, of that book, maybe a chapter. And that particular chapter tells a specific story for that particular cell, or that particular person.
The gene would be a code for something, what that story happens to tell the story of, the cell then reads, learns from that story, and than makes whatever the story says to make.
DNA is basically made up of four letters--A,T, C, G--that are then bound to some sugars to make a molecule. And all of our genetic information is encoded in that DNA. So the particular DNA sequence that we have dictates what those genes are doing for us.
It's because of those differences in those letters that we are all different from one another. But it's because of those similarities in those letters that we are also like one another as human beings.
Yes, we are more alike than we are different.
The experts featured in this video segment are:
Dr. Andrew Landstrom, Pediatric Cardiologist and Cardiovascular Geneticist, Duke University Medical Center
Dr. Vandam Shashi, Genetics Specialist, Duke University Medical Center
In this interactive section of the More Alike Than Different lesson, you will watch one video and three animations that will give you lots of information about DNA and genes. After completing some activities where you can show off your knowledge, you will return to the 5E portion of the More Alike Than Different lesson, and brainstorm with your classmates about how we are more alike than different.
This short video gives a lot of information about DNA and genes. After you've watched the video, list three questions you have about DNA and genes in the box below.
(Click SAVE when you have finished. To see your saved or submitted work again, click MY WORK at the top of the page.)