Whats a genome and why is it important?
A genome is the entire DNA in an organism, including its genes. Genes carry information for making all the proteins required by all organisms. These proteins determine, among other things, how the organism looks, how well its body metabolizes food or fights infection and sometimes even how it behaves. DNA is made up of four similar chemicals (called bases and abbreviated A, T, C, and G) that are repeated millions or billions of times throughout a genome. The human genome, for example, has three billion pairs of bases. The particular order of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs is extremely important. The order underlies all of life’s diversity, dictating whether an organism is human or another. Because all organisms are related through similarities in DNA sequences, insights gained from non-human genomes often lead to new knowledge about human biology.
