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Essay / .DNA is formed in the nucleus of a cell (“National Human,” 2008). Most of the DNA is found in the nucleus and a small amount in the mitochondria. When DNA is found in the nucleus, it is considered nuclear DNA and when DNA is found in the mitochondria, it is considered mitochondrial DNA (“US National,” 2009). Humans always get 50% of your mother's DNA and 50% of your father's DNA through reproduction; although only mitochondrial DNA comes from your mother, because during fertilization, eggs only retain mitochondria (“National Human” 2008). Sometimes DNA can be found in bacterial cells and in viruses (Rubenstein, 2006). DNA is made up of many different resources found in the human body; chemicals, bases and more. Deoxyribonucleic acid is composed of three basic chemical elements; a phosphate group, a sugar group and 1 of the 4 nitrogen bases. DNA is made up of 3 billion bases (National Human, 2008), 99% of these bases are the same in all humans ("US National", 2009), and the order and quantity of the bases determine that the humans are unique (Rubenstein, 2006). The bases are connected by hydrogen bonds, the base pairing is very specific; Adenine only with Thymine and Cytosine only with Guanine (“Comptons”, 2008). Each DNA that contains instructions, which makes proteins, is considered a gene; gene size ranges from 1,000 bases to 1 million bases (“National Human,” 2008). A gene carries genetic information during reproduction (“Wikipedia”, 2009). DNA is made up of thousands of chemical units called nucleotides (Rubenstein, 2006). Nucleotides are linked together by covalent bonds; connecting the phosphate of one to the sugar of the other (“Comptons”, 2008). Like genes, the exact amount and order of nucleotides varies, making the person uniquely themselves (Rubenstein, 2006).
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