Genes are segments of DNA that contain instructions for making proteins or controlling cell functions. DNA stores and transmits genetic information found within all living things, telling cells which proteins to make and when. DNA is located in the nucleus of cells and forms tightly coiled structures called chromosomes. In 1953, Watson and Crick discovered that DNA has a double helix structure with two nucleotide chains wrapping around each other.

1. What are genes? (4 min)
Bill Nye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9BZ3zx8b8I&feature=related

2. Meaning:
Importance:
Description:
Where is it located?
Title: The DNA Date: August 27,2012
Summary:

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf0YXnAFBs8&feature=related
History of DNA

5. Chromosome:
a coiled, double rod-shaped form of condensed DNA
that forms during cell division.

6. Image source: http://www.dnalc.org/home.html

7. DNA is a complex molecule
found in all living things.
The primary function of DNA is
tostore and transmit genetic
information that tells cells
which proteins to make and
when to make them.

8. An idea about size:
An average cell nucleus is
about 6 micrometers in
diameter.
The total length of the DNA in
the human genome is 1.8
meters.
There must be several levels
of coiling and supercoiling in
DNA.

9. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick proposed a model for the
DNA molecule that consisted of two nucleotide chains that wrap
around each other to form a double spiral. This shape is called a
double helix.