• Question: Why is DNA written in letters? (i meant letters last time)

    Asked by dramaalpacca to Lilly on 10 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Lilian Hunt

      Lilian Hunt answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      DNA is normally written as letters because those letters actually stand for the molecules that make up your DNA. It can be quite hard to get your head around the idea but DNA is actually made up of a string of molecules joined together, just 4 different types in long chains of certain orders! These molecules are called ‘bases’. The letters stand for the following bases:
      A – Adenine
      T – Thymine
      G – Guanine
      C- Cytosine

      So when we describe a bit of DNA and write something like ‘AAGGCTGC’ we’re really just saying the order that those molecules are found on that string of DNA. It would be a bit of a mouthful to write the whole lot out in full after all!

Comments