DNA and Enzymes

Have you ever asked yourself the question why my eyes are this color? Or any question as to why we look the way we do. All of our features come down to our genetics. Those genetics are family traits that are passed down through our bloodlines. It all comes down to what is considered the fundamental building blocks of life, our DNA.

DeoxyriboNucleic Acid is the actual name for DNA. We have all heard of DNA for years, but what do you really know about it. What is DNA made of? In this paper we will talk about this mini miracle called DNA. Like any good story we need to start at the beginning.

DNA was discovered in 1868 by a Swiss medical student named Johann Friedrich Miescher. Miescher was working with pus from a surgical would, where he was investigating the white blood cells. It was in these white blood cells that he found the instruction booklet for making us who we are. It is important to note that DNA is in every living being.

Even though Miescher discovered DNA in 1868, it would be over 80 more years before DNA was actually considered actual genetic material. After Miescher found DNA, the medical and scientific communities of that era felt that DNA was too simple to actually be genetic material. It was not until James Watson and Francis Crick came along that DNA would be recognized for all that it is.

Watson and Crick were the ones to delve deeper into the DNA configuration. What they would learn is that the structure is actually a coiled double helix on a 34 degree pitch (Hallick, 1995). They would further discover that DNA is a long complex polymer made from repeating nucleotide. So complex and long in fact that it has been recorded that a humans chromosome number one is 85 nanometers long and contains 220 million base pairs ("Deoxyribonucleic acid (dna)," 2012).

The double helix DNA structure is made from alternating sugar and phosphate bonds. Holding these sugar and phosphate bonds together is hydrogen. Earlier we mentioned that in early DNA discovery it was considered too simple to be actually viable genetic material. This was thought due to the four base materials that are found in all DNA. These are adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine (Simon & Dicker, 2012).