Beginning of my DNA blog.

Hello everyone! Today I am starting my blog about DNA. I will be continuing this blog until April, so keep reading okay? Alright well today I would like to talk about what I have learned so far in my DNA class. First off, I would like to teach you about chromosomes.

10 things you need to know about chromosomes:

1. Chromosomes are composed of DNA and proteins.
The complete name for DNA is Deoxyribonucleic Acid. Big word huh? The proteins in chromosomes are called histones. DNA wraps itself around these histone proteins.

2. Chromosomes have different funtional regions of DNA
-Genetic Regions: The genes of a cell are stored here. These genes carry information to make proteins that give us traits like eye color or if we have lobed ears or attached ears. What do you have?
-Regulatory regions: DNA in regulatory regions decided what genes are on or off. For example, your brain cells only express genes that are needed for brain function so you can do all of the things you can do.
-Junk regions: These regions of chromosomes are a mystery. There is no known function. Satellite regions is the space between genes and introns.

3.Chromosomes are usually in an uncondensed form in the nucleus.
Uncondensed chromosomes look like a bowl of spagetti noodles and condensed chromosomes look like chubby X's.

Well, I guess I'll only share 3 with you today...I have to get to class. There will be more soon!

becca.