DNA has two functions: storing all the information about the cell and repairing itself.
Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) is the building block of all life. Prior to 1953, scientists were unsure of its importance, but the discovery of the double helix model of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick helped prove its importance to all organisms, from eukaryotes (simple, single-cell organisms do no have a special organelle for their DNA) to prokaryotes (which keep their DNA in an organelle called the nucleus). Despite the immense complexity of DNA, it is possible to succinctly describe its two main functions without having to expand on the particulars of how said functions are carried out.
Instructions
1. Give a brief overview of DNA before explaining its function. The structure of DNA is an intertwined double helix, with four base pairs of molecules (adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine) joining together to form the structure. The importance of the double helix is that it allows for a large amount of information to be encoded in DNA, which gives rise to the complexity of life.
2. Explain how DNA encodes all the genetic information of the organism. The most important function of DNA is that it contains all the information of the cell; even in a muti-cellular organism, all the information of all possible permutations in DNA, thus every cell in a given organism has exactly the same DNA. Proteins serve the role of carrying out the DNA's encoded message.
3. Describe how DNA functions in repairing itself. DNA contains enzymes which serve to repair broken strands, replicate missing strands and match up mismatched base pairs. Note that this repair is only for the DNA itself, and does not apply to other parts of the cell.
Tags: double helix, base pairs, repairing itself