DNA in eukaryotes is not free floating chemical compound but is present in bound forms around protein Histone in form of chromosomes. Number and length of chromosomes in all species are specific, and are in pairs called Diploid in all somatic cells. When germ cells divide by meiosis to produce 4 gametes (ovum or sperm) they have only one chromosome of each pair and thus are called Haploid cells.

When fertilization takes place then sperm gets attached to cell membrane of ovum and acrosome of sperm produces an enzyme which allow it to burrow through the outer shell called the zona pellucida and there is fusion of cell membrane of both sperm and ovum at point of contact and their nuclei also fuse releasing chromosomes in nucleus of sperm into nucleus of ovum making zygote which again becomes diploid as it has got 2 sets of chromosomes one from mother and one from father. These chromosomes do not mix and combine in zygote or other somatic cells.

How ever in first phase of meiotic division of germ cells both similar chromosomes of each pair mix and match by crossing over and recombination so each chromosome gets mixed DNA from mother and father

This question relates to biology. To produce gamete s (female and male sex cells, eggs and sperm respectively) they undergo a process meiosis. In meiosis, there are two phases, meiosis one and meiosis two. Without going into too much detail, during prophase one, after the DNA in the nucleus of the cell replicates during interphase, homologus chromosome pairs (meaning the same type of chromosome after replication are next to each other) exchange parts of their genetic information with each other. This process is called crossing over or in dependant assortment. This is one part of meiosis which creates variation in offspring. Furthermore, when this happens, the chromosome pairs are split up creating 2 daughter cells. The two daughter cells then undergo meiosis two which eventually produce 4 granddaughter cells. In a female, eggs are produced however only one out of the 4 granddaughter cells becomes an egg whereas the rest become Polar bodies. In sperm cells, all the granddaughter cells become sperm, able to fertilize the egg.

There are many different combinations of which sperm will fertilize which egg therefore creating a difference in the appearance of each offspring. This therefore creates variation in the off spring. Each parent has different features such as eye color, body hair and other facial and bodily features, this information is carried by the DNA in the nucleus (which are later compressed into chromosomes). The 4 granddaughter cells are haploid meaning they contain 23 chromosomes, half the normal cell's chromosome count which is 46 cheromosomes. When one sperm fertilizes one egg, the genetic information of each parent combine, the 23 chromosomes from each parent 46 chromosomes. Each of these chromosomes (compressed DNA which contain genetic information) influence an offspring's traits to its parents.

All these factors including crossing over during the process of forming gamete, to which granddaughter cell fertilized which egg to the genetic information of each of the gamete fusing together all cause a variation in offspring produced by the same parents. In fact, one pair of parents has the potential to produce 64 trillion different children.

Hope that answered your question in the simplest way possible.

A female is evenly genetically related to both parents, because both of her X genes contain the same amount of genetic material.

A male is always more related to his mother than his father, because the X gene from his mother contains more genetic material than the Y gene from his father.

X and Y genes:

Image Copyright Jenny Graves

Thus, a father always shares more genetic material with his daughter than with his son, while a mother shares her material between the two equally.

“How does meiosis ensure that we receive a varied combination of genes from our parents?”

By independent orientation during metaphase I, and crossing over during prophase I.

Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, one set from the mother and one set from the father, and during metaphase I they line up along the equator (metaphase plate) and then are separated and pulled towards opposite poles during anaphase I. How each pair of homologous chromosomes lines up is independent of how the other pairs line up. For example, for chromosome 1, the paternal chromosome could be on the left and the maternal chromosome on the right; or vice versa. For chromosomes 2, the same applies, and importantly, how chromosome 1 lined up doesn’t affect how chromosome 2 lines up. The number of unique ways homologous chromosomes could line up is 2^n, where n is the number of chromosomes in a set. For humans, n = 23, so there are 2^23 — which is 8,388,608 — different ways that homologous chromosome pairs could line up. So even without crossing over, there are over 8 million unique gametes that a human could produce. Since the father could produce over 8 million unique gametes, and the mother could also produce over 8 millions unique gametes, the fusion of the gametes to produce a zygote could have any of over 70 trillion unique combinations. And we still haven’t gotten to crossing over!

Crossing over occurs during prophase I, when homologous chromosomes synapse and corresponding segments of non-sister chromatids are exchanged. This results in some maternal alleles ending up on the paternal chromosomes, and some paternal alleles ending up on the maternal chromosomes. Crossing over is not repeatable: that is, how crossing over occurred in meiosis for one cell is not the same as how crossing over occurred for another cell. So this adds even more genetic variation to the gametes each parent can produce.

If you're wondering if a couple who are great people can raise a kid that is an asshole the answer is yes. Now is there an asshole gene? Probably not. The developing human brain is so complex that to understand it in it's entirety is practically impossible but it's relatively easy to understand how a kid with wonderful parents who do all the "right" things while raising their kid only to end up with a complete jerk. A kid raised by idiot parents that think only of themselves raising a saint is a little less common but also can be explained. We are a blank slate at birth but immediately begin to become unique and continue becoming unique nonstop until we are complete. Being dropped on your head by your mother when you're a baby, being teased in the locker room in school, being disliked by a teacher, dumped by a boyfriend, your mom telling you that the boogey man will come and get you if you don't eat your lima beans, your older sister telling you there is no Santa Claus outting your parents as liars and on and on are the things that make you what you are and those are not genetics but genes do play a role. There are countless ways our genes factor in and they don't effect every person the same way and sometimes aren't even turned on in every generation. Nobody and I mean nobody can predict how a child will be when they grow up so what do we need do about a crap shoot? You lessen the odds of having the asshole child from Hell by teaching right from wrong, making your kid wear a helmet while riding his bike no matter how gay he looks so he doesn't suffer head trauma, you teach your overly sensitive child that mom and dad are sorry that they're big fat liars but any damage done was unintentional. Genetic issues can't be controlled as easily but can be accounted for. Say you have a family history of illness. Maybe bad eyesight. Watching for symptoms and taking steps to fix them early could very well avoid many behavior issues.

Q: How does DNA transmit genetic information to offspring?

DNA is composed of sugars and phosphates that do not change structurally. They are called the DNA backbone or DNA strands. DNA has two strands. Four different nitrogen containing bases are covalently linked to each strand. When joined in this manner bases are referred to as nucleotides. 3.2 trillion nucleotides are in the human genome. The sequence of these nucleotides determines one's genetic information. There is a dispute as to what percentage of these nucleotides are genetically significant..

DNA in sperm and egg cells combine to produce an offspring, and determine its genetics. This information is replicated and maintained throughout development, and throughout the lifetime of the progeny.

The replication of DNA is made possible by the fact that nucleotides on one strand fit like puzzle pieces with complimentary nucleotides on the complementary strand, allowing each strand to act as a template for replicating the other.

No. Genes don’t really work that way. You get some from mom and some from dad but the way those genes “express” themselves can vary tremendously. Some genes can be very dominant and those family traits show up again and again. Others pop up once in awhile if both parents have one and the child happens to have it, too. It may not “express” in either parent but it’s there and when the child gets it from them, there it is. This is how blue eyed children arrive to 2 brown-eyed parents.

This is incredibly oversimplified. I’m sure someone will come along with a more complicated answer. And there are a lot more things that happen with genes.

I’m sure there is an astronomical statistic that demonstrates the possibility of getting a child that appears to be a “mini-me” but that child wouldn’t be, because no matter what, there will be a different set of genes present from the other parent.

And—even if you had a child who appeared to look uncannily like one parent, it would be really important to remember that the child is also a combination of genes, temperament, and environment. That child will be their own person, regardless of what they look like.

Q. How does DNA serve as genetic information?

A. I want to build on Nick’s answer. A DNA molecule consists of roughly six billion nucleotides. The A, T, C & G base nucleotides Nick listed are uniquely shaped to allow their joining in pairs in only four ways, like jigsaw puzzle pieces. The four pairings are A-T, T-A, C-G & G-C, which are the base letters of the genetic alphabet. The four base pairs individually make the three billion “rungs” on the DNA helical “ladder.”

To communicate DNA instructions for reproduction, DNA words (called codons) are spelled in three-rung triplets “written” down the helix. There are sixty-four three-out-of-four possible combinations of codon spellings from the four base letters above. Precision assembly instructions for .the twenty amino acids are spelled in 61 codons for differing applications. The remaining three codons are ‘start and stop” punctuation to “parse the sentence” strands.

The DNA genetic library is equivalent to 1000 volumes, 500 pages each. A roughly six-foot-long DNA molecule is coiled in the nucleus of almost all of the 30 to 100 trillion cells of our bodies.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) transfers the DNA information to the ribosome “protein factory,” where amino acid chains make proteins. In RNA, “U” Uracil is substituted for Thymine. The mRNA strands are typically 200 to 500 codons long to make a variety of over 100,000 functional proteins. Proteins are the primary building materials to make cells.

So, that is how the inert nucleotides in DNA store genetic information spelled into its helix, and mRNA uses the information to reproduce cells. I recommend Francis Collins’ book The Language of God as an introductory explanation for genetics and research background information. Collins directed the Human Genome Project and is now the National Institutes of Health (USA) director.

92.4K HS

Genetic information in humans is encoded in our DNA. DNA is found in the nucleus of every cell in our body. The exception is red blood cells. They have no nucleus and no DNA. So, the nitty gritty of how DNA encodes information is pretty simple. There are 4 types of bases - adenine, thymidine, cytosiene and guanine. We call them A, T, C and G. An A always pairs with a T and a C always pairs with a G. It is the order of pairing that holds the key. Our DNA is double-stranded so an A on one strand must pair with a T on the other strand. Likewise C and G. When a cell needs more of a protein, a process called Transcription is started. Since DNA is forever trapped in the nucleus and proteins are made in the cytoplasm an intermediary has been formed. DNA is too big to get out of the nucleus but the intermediary is not. So, a copy of the gene to be expressed is made from the DNA. It’s called messenger RNA or mRNA for short. The original location of the base-pairs in the DNA is copied to mRNA. The mRNA molecule is small enough to get out of the nucleus thru nuclear pores. It goes to protein making “factories” in the cell’s cytoplasm, called ribosomes. The ribosome “reads” the mRNA 3 bases at a time. This three letter code signifies a specific amino acid. That amino acid is added to the growing polypeptide in a process called Translation. The ribosome keeps reading the mRNA until it reaches what is known as a “STOP codon”. This tells the ribosome it’s done and all the amino acids have been added.

So, DNA encodes our genetic information in the nucleus. A copy of a gene is made by Transcription called mRNA. The mRNA gets out of the nucleus via pores and goes to a ribosome. It is here that a protein is made in a process called Translation.

I hope you can understand how DNA holds the “recipes” in the form of genes made up of A, T, C and G. Once the mRNA copy is made, DNA is out of the picture. It’s up to mRNA and ribosomes to turn the DNA “recipe” into a protein.

Genetics are inherited from one’s parents, but genetics are far more complicated than just passing traits directly from parent to child. In order to really explain it, I have to go a little into cellular reproduction, and I’ll try to be quick:

In order to make a child, parents have to produce these special cells called gametes; eggs from the mother, and sperm from the father. In order to produce gametes, a singular cell containing two full copies of the parent’s genes has to split into two cells with one copy of that parent’s genes, and then those cells split again into a total of four cells with half that parent’s genes, in a process known as Meiosis. This process is more or less that creates genetic diversity among siblings, as each gamete produced from this process has a different combination of genes from the same parent.

Often, when it comes to congenital diseases that are not present in the parents, there are a lot of things that go on:

1. The child inherits two copies of a recessive gene, one from each parent, leading to an unexpected phenotype.
2. The child inherits a series of genes from each parent that, in combination, result in an unexpected phenotype (polygenic attributes).
3. At some point during development, before or after conception, conditions within the parents’ bodies result in mutations in the gamete’s or child’s DNA, resulting in an unexpected phenotype.

So, genetics is not 100% chance, but there is an element of luck to the traits you inherit and develop.

This answer doesn’t specify species (for which the answer would be a resounding YES if it were open to consider any organism), but assuming you are referring to humans, the answer is also yes.

Technically, offspring from unrelated human pairings are fractionally more related to their mothers than to their fathers because we can only inherit mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) from our mothers.

Also, I have been puzzling over the numbers for a while, so perhaps I’m mistaken, but it seems that the product of a consanguineous pairing, say father-daughter or mother-son incest, would result in a child sharing a higher percentage of DNA with the parent/grandparent than the parent/half-sibling.

Typically, new “information” is the result of a copying error, or, damage due to infections, radiation or chemicals, etc.

As “genetic information” is just chemicals that control the feedback loops of other chemicals….and not “code” in the literal sense…

Its basically analogous to adding salt to water to keep it from boiling over, and the addition of the salt is triggered by the formation of bubbles, etc.

So, the chemicals are just arrangements of repeating smaller chemicals, which we abbreviate as A, T, G and C for example…with A and T being able to bond, and G and C being able to bond…

…so you can have AT or TA but not AG, etc.

If you DO make an error in copying, lets say you accidentally make a copy with an AT where it used to be a TA… you now changed when that salt was added or how the bubbles triggered it, etc.

If the change worked out, you might pass it on, because you were able to survive to reproduce. If it didn’t, say, it killed or harmed you, then, you are LESS likely to be able to pass it on…so, it doesn't harm the SPECIES…just you.

So, basically, that is how new information evolves.

:D

A DNA test is decently simple for relatively proving relationships

First, proving some guy is some father’s son is made simpler by the fact that they have to have identical Y chromosomes (except for maybe a few mutations here or there). Similarly, this guy must have one of his mom’s X chromosomes so you should see traces of the mom’s X chromosome in there too (even if crossing over actually means it was a somewhat “mixed” X chromosome, if even possible)

As for women and proving who’s their mother or father, they not only need their mom’s X chromosome material, they need their dad’s only X chromosome

That alone can give you a LOT of information, especially helping you disprove who cannot be the mother or father

All of this of course assumes all men are 46 XY and all women are 46 XX, none of the weird biology stuff that can occur like inactivating the Y chromosome regions creating male regions or missing the second X as a Turner’s syndrome girl. It also is not considering people like hermaphrodites or transgender people either (assume I’m solely talking of cis people in this answer for simplicity)

Additionally, it is also worth noting that generally mitochondrial DNA is only transmitted from mother to daughter or son. This will help you determine if a prospective mother is actually the mother (though I suppose your maternal aunts will also have the same mitochondrial DNA so again it better just rules out who can never possibly be the mama)

Aside from that, there are a lot of “short tandem repeats” (STRs) all around the genome. These basically are random bits of DNA that seems to not really have functional use, but they may repeat a certain number of times. Say, if it is AGA 3 times on this STR, then you’re marked as a 3 on that STR, but if it is AGA 5 times on that same one then you’re marked as a 5. Counting that you actually have two versions per region, one from mom and one from dad, then you may be a 3, 5 for that one STR.

THIS is how you actually can do forensic DNA analysis for catching criminals, and a common way of doing it for determing genetic relationships

Because if my prospective mom seems to have given me half of my STRs, it starts looking unlikely anyone could have ever been my mom, especially given even her siblings will likely have different ones and thus could not falsely look like my mom

For example, maybe my mom is 5, 7 on one and my aunt, her sister, is 6, 7 on the same one

If I have the 5 and say we knew that could not have come from my dad as we knew my dad had no 5 (maybe he’s 4, 8, for example), it already looks like my aunt cannot actually be my mom and more likely my mom is indeed my mom.

Especially as you stack this up to more and more

Because seriously, the statistical odds are amazingly suggestive on those STRs. I remember actually getting some of these STR regions tested on myself for one of my bio lab courses as a half-Hispanic, half-Eastern European, broadly (former from my mom, latter from my dad)

Turned out I neatly lined up on some traits - sometimes I neatly got one “number” way more likely from the non-Hispanic side (thus almost certainly from my dad), and other times on other STRs I had one look way more likely to be from the Hispanic side and thus my mom. Thus, the best proof I will ever know that I was not adopted!

Even so, it was rather unlikely to get my exact mixture even with that broad ethnic mixture I fall into - I know because I systematically ran the statistics on comparing myself to “the most likely” mixture of the two ethnic groups and I still was fairly different

That tells me that no one can really fake being my mother’s and father’s daughter. It is hard for anyone to even fake being broadly in my ethnic group.

Mind you, that was all with only about a dozen or so STRs that there was only about a 1 in 10 million or so chance of even someone within my group matching me.

While I already even know, if I looked back at my data, exactly what to suspect existed in my own parent’s STRs if I had them do the same tests on the same regions (again, for some I know exactly what to suspect came from which parent for some of them)

So, yeah, STRs work really damn well if you know how to use them right. Even though it is not as much information, the statistics easily stack up

So therefore, this really is only a matter of getting the right STR data from the DNA tests then comparing the prospective parent’s data to the child’s data

They are 100% a product of their parents because they have inherited their genes from them. But I suspect your question really about is the old nature vs. nurture argument. It's really a mix of parenting (nurture) and genes (nature). I think nearly everyone can think of a family where the children were raised well and most of the children turned out well, but one turned out badly. There are also countless accounts of children who were brought up in horrible environments, with terrible parents, who turned out great.

Generally speaking, well raised children tend to be more successful in life and poorly raised children will face challenges throughout life, so nurture can be huge. However there are so many instances where nature takes over and the child turns out a certain way regardless of how poorly or well they were raised.

Blood is made up of plasma, red blood cells (erythrocytes), White Blood Cells (leukocytes) and platelets.

• Erythrocytes are enucleate, that is they lose nucleus as they mature. So, the red blood cells that are going around your body do not contain a nucleus. Since it is the nucleus that harbours the genetic material in eukaryotes, RBCs lack genetic material.
• Leukocytes, on the other hand, do possess a nucleus which contains the genetic material.
• Platelets are just chunks of larger cells called megakaryocytes which are found in the bone marrow. Since these aren’t cells, they do not possess a nucleus and hence genetic material

Hope this clears your question

Think of chromosomes like pairs of shoes. Before mitosis or meiosis all the chromosomes are copied and the 2 copies (chromatids) remain stuck together. In metaphase in mitosis the 'shoes' line up in the centre of the cell then the chromatids are pulled apart in anaphase so each new cell gets a copy of all left and right shoes.

Meiosis is different because the ‘shoes’ line up in pairs but the left and right shoes can face either direction. In anaphase the pairs are pulled apart so each new cell gets a mixture of left and right shoes. Every time this process occurs there will probably be a different arrangement of shoes. For each of the 23 pairs of chromosomes of a human offspring there is the possibility of either left or right from each parent, that is, LL, LR, RL or RR. So the number of possible chromosome combinations is 4^23, or more than 70 trillion.

Another mechanism for increasing genetic diversity is the exchange of sections of DNA between chromosomes of the same pair.

Your parents have DNA sets in their germline cells (sperm/eggs) different than in their other cells so they “carry” DNA from earlier generations that are not expressed in their other cells (say their faces). Plus they get new mutations (as you do).

Think of DNA like letters in a book: they combine to create words, sentences, paragraphs. They can move around, i.e. their order can matter, not just the list overall. Mostly they make proteins that have functions like turning things on and off, or moving cells around, or diversifying cell types. It affects most things from how much melanin is produced in a skin cell to how reactive you are to simuli.

Information is, in an abstract sense, whatever is represented or conveyed by a given measure, arrangement, or sequence of things.

With regard to genetic information, it is abstractly used to refer to the biological significance of the structure of molecules related to heredity.

More specifically, we usually talk about genetic information in the context of the sequence of DNA within the cells of an organism. DNA is a polymer, a long molecular chain composed of subunits called nucleotides, of which there are four: thymine, cytosine, adenine, and guanine. For simplicity, biologists will refer to those chemicals by their first letters (T, C, A, and G) and represent the DNA sequence a string of those letters, for example: ATGCCCGATCGTTTTTGA…

The sequence of letters has significance. Certain sequences of letters give a local shape to the DNA molecule that other molecules (often proteins) will stick to, maybe to cut, or to turn on/off genes. A gene, is a region of the DNA that is used as a physical template for the creation of a new molecule. Some genes are protein coding genes, meaning that the sequence is used as a template for the creation of new proteins.

Proteins are also polymers, but of chemical subunits called amino acids (there are 20 common amino acids). All living things use a mechanism whereby the DNA is used as a template to create a similar polymer called RNA, and the RNA polymer is “translated” by matching a 3 nucleotide pattern (called a codon) and linking the amino acids together into a chain called a protein. The chemical properties of the amino acids in the protein chain cause it to fold up and adopt certain shapes which make it capable or performing certain types of chemistry.

Therefore, we refer to the DNA sequence as genetic information: it defines the genetic makeup (genes and their expression) that give rise to the living organism.

The sequence can change in various ways, including small point mutations, rearrangements (chunks breaking off and gluing back together at different spots), duplications (two copies sticking together), losses, and recombination (where pieces intertwine and swap places). These pieces of genetic material are carried forward during cell divisions and in the sex cells of sexually reproducing organisms, giving the next generation a genetic heritage.

In general, the appearance of completely new genetic information completely from scratch is fairly rare in evolution. Usually we see that existing motifs and structures become co-opted into new functions and then are gradually optimised to the new function. There have been extremely few completely novel genes between, say, the divergence of mammals and fish, for example. Many of our respective genes have acquired radically different functions over the last half a billion years or so. but the norm is that evolution takes existing genes and adapts them to fit their new roles.

Duplication seems to be quite important for this; if a gene is doing something important, having two copies allows one to keep doing it’s important job while the other can tolerate acquiring mutations that allow it to do something else. Again, if this is a completely new feature, it doesn’t have to start off being terribly efficient at the new job, as long as it’s strictly better than nothing at all, it will be selected by evolution, and then start to acquire the gradual improvements that make it specific and efficient in the new role.

Genomic translocation is also likely to be important, so that motifs from different proteins occasionally get spliced together, producing something new. These are all processes that we can test and investigate using bioinformatics, and we often see these processes happening in microcosm during the mutations that produce cancer. (Again, remember that over evolutionary time natural selection will necessarily remove deleterious mutations and preserve the rarer positive mutations).

Personally, I would expect completely novel structures to be comparatively rare, but some people disagree. While there’s a very small number of optimal configurations for any given functional enzyme or structural motif, if all you need is a minimal efficiency suboptimal configuration to get evolution started, there are many, many more ways to make a suboptimal enzyme or motif. So frameshift mutations that effectively randomise the amino acid sequence could be a more effective way to produce genetic novelty than you might expect. It’s hard to probe exactly how common you should expect that to be; it’s been suggested that the acquisition of nylonase activity (the breakdown of a polymer bond not found in nature, present as an industrial waste product in the environment since around 1930, a trait recognised in bacteria in the mid 1970s) might have been a result of a completely novel protein arising from a frameshift mutation, but as far as I can make out that doesn’t seem to be accurate. 40 years would have been blisteringly fast in evolutionary time, however, so this is still a contender for explaining genetic novelty over a scale of billions of years.

Mendel's experiment were performed on garden pea as one of the reason was it was easy to distinguish between dominant and recessive traits. There are certain terms which need to be known before we understand the concept-

Filial generation - filial means the offspring from the cross.

Test cross - cross between the offspring and the recessive parent.

There are two ways through which it was concluded that characters transmit from both parents

Consider two pea plants one dominant and other recessive for the character height

Dominant - TT - tall

Recessive- tt - short

1. When both the pea plants were crossed and first filial generation was producted it was tall and when was self crossed it produced combinations, produced offspring with phenotypes both short and tall. This proves that characters are transmitted by both parents.
2. Test cross can be another way to determine the same.

The initial experiment that proved (or at least strongly suggested) that DNA was the genetic material was carried out by Avery, McLeod and MacCarty in 1944. Wikipedia has a thorough description of the experiment and also of those that followed that confirmed the initial experiment: Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment

The bottom line for those who do not want to read the article linked above is that Avery, McLeod and MacCarty isolated DNA from virulent pneumococcus bacteria and showed that non-virulent bacteria were rendered virulent ("transformed") when mixed with the DNA from the virulent strain.

This video describes the experiment very well:

Avery experiment

In 1952, Hershey and Chase further established that DNA was the genetic material by labeling the DNA or proteins of bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) with radioactive isotopes and showing that the radioactive material went inside the bacteria upon infection: Hershey–Chase experiment

The Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment solidified this knowledge by deciphering the first DNA codon, in 1961.

The classic answer is that DNA contains the information to make proteins. Proteins are polymers of amino acids. Each protein has its own sequence of amino acids. The functionality of the protein ultimately depends on that sequence of amino acids. Proteins have many functions within the cell: structural (i.e. actin), enzymatic (i.e. glucose phosphate dehydrogenase), membrane receptors (i.e. insulin receptor), transport (i.e. the Na-K cell membrane transport protein), etc. etc.

DNA is composed of nucleotides consisting of a base, deoxyribose (a sugar), and phosphate. The ribose and phosphate are on the outside of the double helix and the bases are in toward the center. There are 4 bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine (A, G, C, and T). The bases can form hydrogen bonds with other bases. The stablest pairings are A-T and G-C. It is these stable pairings that make the copying of DNA possible. The pairings also make the information transfer from DNA to amino acid sequence possible.

You can read about protein synthesis in detail here: Medical Applications and From DNA to RNA to protein, how does it work?

Briefly, DNA is unwound in the area of a gene. That means a single strand with bases. As an example, the string could be ATGGGC. A messenger RNA molecule is made using the DNA as a template. Because of the base pairing, the mRNA will be TACCCG. It’s a bit more complicated, since uracil (U) is used in place of thymine in RNA, so the sequence is UACCCG. The messenger RNA is then taken to ribosomes (also made from RNA) in the cytosol of the cell. The ribosomes then make protein.

The “information” comes from the fact that there is a 3 base “code” of bases that corresponds to an amino acid. The 3 bases and the amino acids they correspond to are shown below:

So, our example of UACCCG would become the amino acids tyrosine-arginine in the protein. If a protein had 100 amino acids, the mRNA would have 300 bases.

Thus, it is said that DNA has the “information” of the amino acid sequences in proteins.

As Emily Czinege pointed out, there are other levels of information.

1. RNA. DNA also contains the sequences of nucleotides that become the ribosomal RNA and the transfer RNA. Recently, it was found that DNA will also be transcribed to microRNAs (miRNA) and long noncoding RNA (lncRNA). Both miRNA and lncRNA have some control over which genes are transcribed and turned into proteins.
2. Control regions of DNA. These regions lie “in front of” the gene. That is, they are stretches of DNA preceding where transcription of the gene to mRNA starts. Proteins, called “transcription factors”, bind to this region and either open up the DNA so the gene can be transcribed, or close the region down so the gene cannot be transcribed. Thus, it can control whether a particular protein is made and how much of it is made.
3. Epigenetics. The bases can have methyl groups attached. See Figure 1 in DNA Methylation | Blood Journal. Methylating one or more bases can turn a gene “off”. DNA is surrounded by histones, which “package” the DNA into a small space. A stretched out DNA molecule (a chromosome) can be longer than 85 millimeters. That is way to long to fit into a cell (typical human cell is 0.01 millimeters in diameter)! The histones have to let the DNA unpackage to be transcribed to mRNA. Modifying histones is another way to control which genes are turned “on” and which turned “off”.

Hereditary information in people is encoded within DNA. DNA can be found in the nucleus of each and every mobile within our body. The exclusion is red blood cells. They've no nucleus no DNA. Therefore, the nitty-gritty of just how DNA encodes information is quite easy. There are 4 forms of bases - adenine, thymidine, cytosiene and guanine. We call them A, T, C and G. An A always pairs with a T and a C always sets with a G. It will be the purchase of pairing that keeps the main element. Our DNA is double-stranded so an A on one strand must pair with a T on the other side strand. Similarly C and G. When a cell needs more of a protein, a process called Transcription is started. Since DNA is permanently trapped into the nucleus and proteins are made into the cytoplasm an intermediary is formed. DNA is too huge to leave regarding the nucleus nevertheless intermediary is not. So, a duplicate of this gene become expressed is made of the DNA. It\u2019s called messenger RNA or mRNA for short. The original precise location of the base-pairs in DNA is copied to mRNA. The mRNA molecule is tiny adequate to get out of the nucleus thru atomic pores. It would go to protein making \u201cfactories\u201d in cell\u2019s cytoplasm, called ribosomes. The ribosome \u201creads\u201d the mRNA 3 bases at the same time. This three letter signal indicates a particular amino acid. That amino acid is added to the growing polypeptide in an ongoing process known as Translation. The ribosome maintains reading the mRNA until it hits what is generally a \u201cSTOP codon\u201d. This informs the ribosome it\u2019s done and all sorts of the proteins happen added.

So, DNA encodes our hereditary information into the nucleus. A duplicate of a gene is manufactured by Transcription labeled as mRNA. The mRNA gets out from the nucleus via skin pores and goes to a ribosome. It is right here that a protein is manufactured in an ongoing process known as Translation.

I hope you can understand how DNA keeps the \u201crecipes\u201d in the shape of genetics composed of A, T, C and G. Once the mRNA content is made, DNA is out of the picture. It\u2019s around mRNA and ribosomes to show the DNA \u201crecipe\u201d into a protein.

I would start sharing it with them when it mattered and would help them live their lives. For instance, if breast cancer ran in our family, I would be pushing my daughters as young women to start being tested for genetic markers and having mammograms. If colon cancer was a risk, I would suggest they modify their diets as children, and point out that Grandma died of intestinal cancer that might have been prevented if she had eaten a different diet. I would point out genetic tendencies toward lung cancer and throat and mouth cancer to my teens when they started thining about experiementing with smoking. When they neared childbearing age, I would start discussing genetic tendencies to have twins or deformities. But some things I don’t think I would share. If my grandsons grandfather had Huntingtons disease, I don’t think I would tell them at all. Huntingtons is inherited as a dominant trait, and there is no treatment and no prevention involved, you either have it and die a long debilitating death or you don’t. If they found out as children, teens or young men that they would likely die in their thirties from this, they may not decide to pursue schooling and make something of their lives. They might decide instead to live it up now, smoke and drink and use drugs and grab the here and now pleasures of life instead of becoming good citizens and good members of the community. I saw this happen with a relative, and I don’t want to ever see it again.