Biology and Function of DNA
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DNA contains the information to make proteins, which carry out all the functions and characteristics of living organisms.
Each protein is encoded by a gene, a specific sequence of DNA nucleotides that specifies how a single protein is to be made and the order and types of amino acids (building blocks of proteins) that must be put together to make a protein.
The particular sequence of amino acids in the chain is what makes one protein different from another and ideal for different functions which include:
- Enzymes that carry out chemical reactions (such as digestive enzymes)
- Structural proteins that are building materials (such as collagen and nail keratin)
- Transport proteins that carry substances (such as oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in blood)
- Contraction proteins that cause muscles to compress (such as actin and myosin)
- Storage proteins that hold on to substances (such as albumin in egg whites and iron-storing ferritin in your spleen)
- Hormones - chemical messengers between cells (including insulin, estrogen, testosterone, cortisol, et cetera)
- Protective proteins - antibodies of the immune system, clotting proteins in blood
- Toxins - poisonous substances (such as bee venom and snake venom)
