DNA Essays -- Biology Biological Essays

desoxyribonucleic acidThere is no substance as important as DNA, Watson, 1991.Gene therapy is a controversial issue in todays science society. Debates in the United States are natural covering a wide range of topics. I will discuss precisely a few viewpoints from both sides.First of all(prenominal), a little accent on DNA and genetics. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a complex structure consisting of a pronged stranded helix made up of complementary lowly pairs. Adenine (A) pairs up with thymine (T) and guanine (G) matches with cytosine (C). They are held unneurotic with the help of hydrogen bonds. The helix is spiral shaped, and the outside of DNA is alternate(a) sugar and phosphate groups. Watson and Crick presented this structure in 1953. The genetic enrol is imprinted in the precise sequence of the nitrogenous bases running down the duration of DNA molecule. Lee, 1993. A base triplet code is made up of ternary nucleotides. Each DNA triplet code is translated via a me ssenger RNA into a protein. DNA has a semiconservative replication process where the double strands unwind and serve as templates.A genome is a collection of DNA molecules that make up am organism. There is great diversity betwixt different species and even between the same species. The human genome contains up to three billion base pairs, the genetic difference among individual humans is as much as three million base pairs of DNA (Davis, 1990).A conversion is where a gene is changed to another form. A mutation does not imply a bad thing happened. They can be deleterious, grammatical case disease, reduce fitness or even be lethal. A mutation can also be beneficial if it increases adaptability or advantages in a species. Or a mutation can be silent and fix no apparent change in the organism. T... ...ecoming a safer, more efficient process that may some day cure the world of all genetic disease. Some day, being sick may just misbegotten getting gene therapy.BibliographyJoel Dav is, Mapping the Code The Human Genome Project and the Choices of new Science, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1990.Thomas F. Lee, GENE FUTURE The Promise and Perils of the refreshed Biology, Plenum Press, New York, 1993.U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, New Developments in BiotechnologyBackground Paper, pubic Receptions of Biotechnology, OTABBPBA45, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., May 1987 quoted by George J. Annas and Sherman Elias, GENE subprogram Using law and Ethics as Guides, Oxford University Press, New York, 1992, page 144. incomprehensible author, Gene Therapy - An Overview, 1990, http//www.gene.com/AE/AB/IWT/Gene_Therapy_Overview.html