Thanks

Thanks to everyone who has taken time out of their busy schedules to read my blog on understanding DNA. I really hope I've helped you understand at least one concept about DNA. I'm so grateful to have learned about this amazing subject and to share it with you!

Cancer

I'm going to conclude talking about cancer. Cancer is one of the most common diseases in the world and can be very devastating. Why talk about cancer in an Understanding DNA course? Well, because everything is DNA based. Cancer results from a mutation in DNA. Certain genes or segments of DNA code for proteins that are necessary in regulating the cell cycle. In other words these proteins determine whether or not a cell will continue with DNA replication and cell division. Usually our cells are pretty good at halting a cell from replicating and dividing if there are mutations in the DNA, but if the DNA alters the proteins that are in charge of that, uncontrolled growth can occur. This of course results in tumors.
It's rather interesting, isn't it. There are so many different cases and factors with cancer. Probably too many differences and too much detail to go into. One thing that I think is pretty easy to understand is usually two or more mutations must occur in order for cancer to result.
There is so much research going on to try to better understand cancer. There are many types of cancer, but there are many treatments and medicines for cancer as well. This is a disease that has a long way to go. Most all lives are involved with some type of cancer. In fortunate cases lives are saved. All I can say is that I'm so thankful for the gospel in my life to assure this life is not the end!

Pedigree

  

So this is an image of a pedigree and it shows how some traits are passed on. During my class we studied a gene that increases the addiction to nicotine. Isn't in intriguing that there is actually a gene that codes for that? Anyway I'm going to break down the very basics of how to read pedigrees, just in case you're ever faced with having to read one. 

First, squares represent males and circles represent females. (Think, hard edges: men, smooth edges: women :]). Second, solid or filled shapes men the individual is affected with the gene or trait. Parents to children are bound with a horizontal line and their children are connected to them. It's usually/generally easy to tell. If parents have a set of twins they form a triangle with the lines connecting them to the parents (I know that's confusing, sorry!). If the twins are identical a horizontal line will join the twins, similar to parents. This image doesn't have any deaths, but a death would be represented with a slash through the shape. Last, the roman numerals up and down the left sides represent first, second, and third generations.

Images from: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=pedigree&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1280&bih=642&tbm=isch&tbnid=DnzhFhiJtMVCJM:&imgrefurl=http://www.uic.edu/classes/bms/bms655/lesson3.html&docid=JXRBTjMR1dmD8M&imgurl=http://www.uic.edu/classes/bms/bms655/gfx/pedigree1.gif&w=503&h=334&ei=8YTnTsaXBIX9iQK4ou36Bg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=832&vpy=187&dur=1890&hovh=183&hovw=276&tx=136&ty=92&sig=115968425815851733043&page=1&tbnh=112&tbnw=169&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0

Heredity

This post is going to help you understand why you look like your father, your mother, both your father and your mother, or neither your father or your mother. I found some narrated presentations as I was looking through my course material. Everything is quite interesting. I hope you like it. Click here and select "WHAT IS HEREDITY?" as well as "WHAT IS A TRAIT?" These are great presentations!

Meiosis

Meiosis is quite an interesting process. Here's a link to a great video. (Can you tell that I like videos to learn from?). You should pay attention to all the different steps that increase diversity in genetics. You'll notice a few and I think they're amazing! It helps us all to be unique individuals.

Structure

Alright so now I think is a great time to talk about the structure and replication of DNA. First, the structure.
DNA Structure
Here are a few basic things. 
DNA is made from nucleotides linking together. Each nucleotide is composed of three different structures: a phosphate, a sugar, and a nitrogenous base. The phosphate and sugar make up the sugar-phosphate backbone of DNA and are the same throughout the DNA structure.  The nitrogenous bases are those lovely ATGC letters we connect to DNA. (Just a reminder A is adenine, T is thymine, G is guanine, and C in cytosine. Adenine and thymine pair up and guanine and cytosine pair up.) With that knowledge click here to practice pairing bases.
There are so many other little details, but I think we should stick to the basics. So, here is another link that shows how nucleotides are added during replication. It's a video and it's pretty cool. Have fun!

Chromosomes (cont.)

I found this great link on chromosomes from the material in my class. Click here to access the page. When you get to the page click on "WHAT IS A CHROMOSOME?" and follow through with the presentation. It's great and interesting information. I enjoyed it!

Chromosomes

Chromosomes are interesting little buggers!
What are they?
Chromosomes are thread-like structures that house DNA.
Where are they found?
They reside in the nuclei of cells.
What do they do?
Different regions of chromosomes function in different ways. Most individuals know DNA to contain our genes. That is entirely correct. Genes are short sequences of DNA that contain information to make proteins. On chromosomes there is a genetic region and that is where these genes are contained. Other regions of chromosomes include Regulatory and Junk regions. For more information about those regions, ask me!

All animals have different number of chromosomes. Humans have two sets of 23- each set inherited from each parent to make a total of 46 chromosomes (duh!). Diploid cells are cells that carry two sets of chromosomes. Almost all animal cells are diploid cells, BUT there are exceptions. For example, sex cells (or sperm and egg cells) are called haploid cells because they only contain one set of chromosomes. This makes sense if you think about it. Since both parents give their offspring one set of chromosomes, when an egg and sperm fuse they each have one set to give to make a total of two sets of chromosomes and... tah dah! We have a baby. Pretty cool, huh? Another exception that I think it really interesting to note it ants. Ants only have one set of chromosomes. Crazy little things!

Karyotypes
The image below is a karyotype. I'm going to throw something at you guys and not discuss it too much further. Chromosomes exist in condensed and expanded states. When cells begin to divide (which I'll talk about in another post) they are in their condensed state and this is the best and easiest time for us to actually see them. So to achieve a karyotype a dividing cell is drugged to stop the division process and a special dye is added. Then the cell is put under a microscope and a picture is taken (with a pretty advanced microscope). Then the picture is cut up and rearranged to achieve this beauty.
 
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=karyotype&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1280&bih=642&tbm=isch&tbnid=REhLerngthoByM:&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karyotype&docid=qCQCZxZlzltzfM&imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/NHGRI_human_male_karyotype.png/250px-NHGRI_human_male_karyotype.png&w=250&h=195&ei=wRXhTruCJeqYiAKG8-2TDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=204&vpy=199&dur=1178&hovh=156&hovw=200&tx=65&ty=76&sig=115968425815851733043&page=1&tbnh=123&tbnw=167&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

What is DNA?

To give you a brief (yes!) overview of what DNA is, select the link below.
What is DNA?

Introduction

Hello to all! Really, who am I kidding? I might get a handful of people to read this, but my hope is for it to spread. Let me explain. I'm taking an online course from BYU-Idaho this semester called Understanding DNA. For those who were born yesterday the purpose of the class is to understand DNA. A few weeks ago as part of the curriculum we students were to choose a project that would allow us to impact our community. Seeing as how we now live in a world of Facebook and blogs I thought what better way than to create a blog and advertise it through Facebook? After the thought I realized that maybe only my sisters would read it voluntarily (I'm going to force my husband to) so I started to brainstorm other ideas. I eventually concluded that if I only get five people to read my blog, and each of them share something with just one person that's 10 people that have learned something through the blog. So, if you are reading this first let me thank you and then let me challenge you to share just one insight with someone you know. I think this could work! As far as the plan goes, I'll do one or two posts a day. If you read this please, please, PLEASE, ask me questions that you're not sure, tell me something you liked or appreciated, and/or tell me something I should explain better. There are many things I've found interesting throughout the course. Some of my sources will be from the course material. If you have questions concerning that, let me know and I'll get you the source.