Question: what are genes ??

Jim Caryl answered on 21 Jun 2011:

Genes are regions of DNA that encode an instruction to make a particular protein, and they do this by acting as a template for another type of nucleic acid (the type of chemical that DNA is) called RNA. It is this RNA, which is only as long as a ‘gene’, that then tells the protein-making machinery of the cell how to put together a a protein. Proteins are made from amino acids, and the order in which the amino acids are stuck together results in all the different shapes and functions of proteins.

Proteins can be structural, i.e. they are the building blocks of cells (your heair is made of a protein called keratin, and the main protein in your skin – and in fact your body – is called collagen), or they can be enzymes, which are little chemical machines that carry out biochemical activities that keep the cells, and you, alive. These could be digestive enzymes that help you break down nutrients in your food, or there can be any one of the thousands of enzymes that carry out some of the million or so biochemical reactions that happen in your cells every second.

Not all of the DNA in your cells is are ‘genes’; there are other regions between genes that have other roles, and genes don’t always code for just one type of protein – as ever, biology has a few surprises up its sleeve for all of us 😉