An Overview of Molecular Nutrition
Nicole M. Farmer, Andres Victor Ardisson Korat in Cooking for Health and Disease Prevention, 2022
DNA is the genetic material that determines every aspect of the body. Each strand of DNA is made of nucleotides linked together. The nucleotides are then translated into proteins needed for the body’s structure and function. While DNA itself cannot be changed – i.e., the same DNA at birth is kept throughout the entire lifespan – but how DNA is used, or expressed, can be changed. Lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, sleep, and stress can all affect how DNA is used and translated into the proteins it codes. In general, healthy behaviors equate to a greater number of healthy proteins created and the suppression of unhealthy proteins.
Identification of the living and the dead
Jason Payne-James, Richard Jones in Simpson's Forensic Medicine, 2019
The molecule of DNA has two strands of sugar and phosphate molecules that are linked by combinations of four bases, adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine, forming a double helix structure. Only about 10 per cent of the molecule is used for genetic coding (the active genes), the remainder being ‘silent’. In these silent zones, there are between 200 and 14,000 repeats of identical sequences of the four bases. Sir Alec Jeffreys found that adjacent sequences were constant for a given individual and that they were transmitted, like blood groups, from the DNA of each parent. The statistical analysis of DNA identification is extremely complex and it is important that any calculations are based upon the DNA characteristics of a relevant population and not upon the characteristics of a ‘standard’ population somewhere else in the world. Forensic genetics developed from protein-based techniques and brought with it the term ‘DNA fingerprinting’, this being based on restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of high-molecular-weight DNA. Development of analytical techniques resulted such as the amplification of much smaller short tandem repeat (STR) sequences using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which soon replaced RFLP analysis and became standard in genetic identification. STR multiplexes are now available which simultaneously amplify up to 30 STR loci from as little as 15 cells or fewer. The huge volume of information associated with the great range of observed STR genotypes allows for genetic individualisation (with the exception of identical twins).
Biological Basis of Behavior
Mohamed Ahmed Abd El-Hay in Understanding Psychology for Medicine and Nursing, 2019
A strand of DNA serves as a template for the synthesis of ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules. There are four types of RNA, each encoded by its own type of gene. Messenger RNA serves as a template for the synthesis of protein molecules. DNA contains four bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine). The order of those bases determines the order of corresponding bases along an RNA molecule (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil). In turn, the order of bases along an RNA molecule determines the order of amino acids that compose a protein, e.g., if three RNA bases are, in order, cytosine, adenine, and guanine, then the protein adds the amino acid glutamine. If the next three RNA bases are uracil, guanine, and guanine, the next amino acid on the protein is tryptophan. In total, proteins consist of 20 amino acids, and the order of those amino acids depends on the order of DNA and RNA bases.
Association between NOS3 polymorphisms and osteonecrosis of the femoral head
Published in Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, 2019
Xiaodong Zhao, Fuqiang Yang, Luwei Sun, Ali Zhang
Until now, the replacement of artificial hip joint represents an effective way to relieve pain and improve joint functions among ONFH cases. However, artificial joint costs highly, with limited service life time [23]. ONFH has brought about serious torment and heavy financial burden to the patients. Therefore, early diagnosis and prevention are critical ways for the settlement of ONFH. However, due to unclear etiology, it is difficult to realize such operations in clinic. As we all know, not all of the individuals exposing to risk factors would eventually subject to ONFH. This phenomenon is determined by individual susceptibility which is closely related to genetic information. DNA is the basic carrier of human genetic information whose characteristics cannot be changed along with either time or space. Gene polymorphism is an important reason for differences in individual susceptibility to diseases, and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) stands for a most common form [24–28].
Ribosomopathies and cancer: pharmacological implications
Published in Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 2022
Gazmend Temaj, Sarmistha Saha, Shpend Dragusha, Valon Ejupi, Brigitta Buttari, Elisabetta Profumo, Lule Beqa, Luciano Saso
Ribosomes are ribonucleoprotein complexes discovered by Palade and Porter in 1954 as small round bodies associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), as observed using an electronic microscope [1]. It is well known that genetic information is stored in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, and by the highly regulated mechanism of transcription, genes, as particular segments of DNA, are copied into mRNA (ribonucleic acid) by the RNA polymerase enzyme. Ribosome macromolecules catalyze the translation of information from mRNAs into functional polypeptide chains. Ribosomes consist of large and small subunits. Eukaryotic ribosome consists of a smaller 40S subunit and a large 60S subunit. The smaller 40S subunit consists of 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and 33 ribosomal protein small (RPS) subunits, whereas the 60S subunit contains 28S, 5S, and 5.8S rRNA and 47 ribosomal protein large (RPL) [2,3].
Patenting Foundational Technologies: Lessons From CRISPR and Other Core Biotechnologies
Published in The American Journal of Bioethics, 2018
Oliver Feeney, Julian Cockbain, Michael Morrison, Lisa Diependaele, Kristof Van Assche, Sigrid Sterckx
DNA is made up of paired strands of bases (nucleic acids denoted by the letters C, A, G, and T), where each base pairs with one other, T binding to A, and G to C, linking the two strands in the famous double helix structure. If natural DNA is chopped up with nucleases, and if short DNA sequences (primers) are added to the mixture, then one has a mixture containing cut fragments bound to the added primers. Adding nucleic acids and an enzyme (DNA polymerase), which causes the ragged ends of these bound fragments to be extended with the appropriate nucleic acids to become blunt-ended, yields a mixture of short, paired DNA molecules. Repeatedly separating and regrowing the paired sections yields multiple copies of the short paired molecules: Starting with one combination of GGAGCTTAG bound to its complementary sequence CCTCGAATC yields two versions of each in the first replication, four in the second, and so on. The increase of copies is exponential and, by analogy with nuclear fission in a reactor or bomb, is called a chain reaction—the “polymerase chain reaction” or PCR. In this way, enough copies of the short paired molecules can be produced relatively cheaply and quickly to enable detection and characterization.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Nucleic Acid
- Polymer
- Polynucleotide
- Protein
- Rna
- Virus
- Lipid
- Nucleic Acid Double Helix
- Genetics
- Reproduction