Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms with the exception of some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information. DNA is often compared to a set of blueprints, like a recipe or a code, since it contains the instructions needed to construct other components of cells, such as proteins and RNA molecules.
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DNA The principal material of inheritance. It is found in chromosomes and consists of molecules that are long unbranched chains made up of many nucleotides. Each nucleotide is a combination of phosphoric acid, the monosaccharide deoxyribose and one of four nitrogenous bases: thymine, cytosine, adenine or guanine. The number of possible arrangements of nucleotides along the DNA chain is immense. Usually two DNA strands are linked together in parallel by specific base-pairing and are helically coiled. Replication of DNA molecules is accomplished by separation of the two strands, followed by the building up of matching strands by means of base-pairing, using the two halves as templates. By a mechanism involving RNA, the structure of DNA is translated into the structure of proteins during their synthesis from amino acids.\n(Source: ALL)
