Now, before we actually put these tiny parts together to build a DNA molecule like some microscopic piece of IKEA furniture, let’s first take a look at what makes up each nucleotide. Link them together and you have yourself a polynucleotide. In DNA, these small units are called nucleotides. Structurally they’re polymers, which means that each one is made up of many small, repeating molecular units. Well, nucleic acids are the fourth major group of biological molecules and, for my money, they have the most complicated job of all. Now if you can make your mind do this, remember all the way back to Episode 3, where we talked about all of the important biological molecules: carbohydrates, lipids and proteins. And so is its cousin, which we’ll also be talking about, ribonucleic acid, or RNA. These chromosomes are packed together tightly with proteins in the nucleus of the cells.ĭNA is nucleic acid. In which case every body cell, or somatic cell in you right now, has 46 chromosomes, each containing one big DNA molecule. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you’re human. And it does the same thing for pretty much every other living thing. It’s a 6 billion letter code that provides the assembly instructions for everything that you are. DNA is what stores our genetic instructions-the information that programs all of our cell’s activities. Of course you know I’m talking about deoxyribonucleic acid, known to its friends as DNA. Laid end to end, the DNA in those cells would stretch to the sun. Now consider that there are probably 50 trillion cells in my body right now. 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 60 years ago. It’s pretty much the most complicated molecule that exists, and potentially the most important one. It’s double hel-exciting! You really can tell, just by looking at it, how important and amazing it is. HANK GREEN, Narrator: It’s just beautiful, isn’t it? It’s just mesmerising.
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