What was the first life like?? Can we ever know?
DNA - Deoxyribonucleic Acid
Genetic information about the life form is contained
here in the sequencing of the C,T,G and A nucleotides.
Something like Morse Code (dots, dashes) or Binary
code (0s, 1s), even with this few characters, a lot of
information can be stored provided you have a very long
sequence!
DNA also drives operation of the Cells, their function and
behavior, but does so through reactions with RNA,
Ribonucleic Acid. RNA is usually a single template
strand made from the DNA.
As we've seen in the previous lectures, we are still quite a long way from
seeing evidence of the first life, 'geologically and biologically
speaking'. We now turn to geneticists using DNA patterns to give us
insight.
A double Helix structure, made up of 4 Bases: Cytosine,
Guanine, Thymine, Adenine, known mostly by their first
letters C, G, T, and A. C-G make a pair, and T-A make
the other pair. When it comes time to reproduce a new
cell, the ladder splits down the middle like a zipper.
New nucleotides are then attached to the open sites,
reproducing an exact match of the parent DNA.
