Biology 2

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‘What Is Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS)? 4 The answer to this question starts with the answer to another question—what is the Whole genome sequence? All living things on Earth, including humans, ae largely built according to instructions in a molecule called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), Tn burnans this DNA is found almost entirely in structures called chromosomes inside cour cells, Humans almost always have 46 chromosomes, a pair of the chromosomes namedl 1 through 22, along with two so-called sex chromosomes, X and Y. Women have two X chromosomes, men an X and AY.) Our mothers and fathers gave ‘us one copy each of those 22 pairs cof chromosomes and one copy of sex chromosome. 5 Each chromosome is one very long DNA molecule. This DNA molecule takes the form ofthe famous “double helix” Think of a ladder that has been wwisted into a spital, The sides of the ladder are the sides of the DNA molecule; the rungs of the ladder make DNA special. Each rung. {s made up of owo stall molecules, one attached to each side of the DNA ladder These small molecules are always one of four types: adenine, cytosine, guanine, Figure Francis Crick English) and James Watson (Americar) won the Nobel Prize for Medicine Jn 1962 for this discovery of DNAs structure. ‘They had been working together at Cambridge University in England, where they dliscoveres the double helix structure. Crick later moved to California, where he studied brain research and died in 2004. Watson, also moved tothe United States and was Instrumental inthe Human Genome Project 16 The “whole genome sequence” lists all of and thymine (called A, C, G, and 1). The secret of DNA is that Ais always attached to T, and Cto G, These two molecule combinations—the ladder’s rungs—are called ‘base pairs." The discovery of this double helix structure in 953 made Prancis Crick and James Wacson famous, particularly because, as they noted at the end of theiz very short article announcing their discovery, the structure, and its possible “unzipping,” provided a clear mechanism for DNA to be copied accurately as cells grow and divide. The Lord ofthe Rings trilogy, written by JRR Tolkien in 1937, sa fantasy novel Itismade up of three books: The Fellowship ofthe Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return ofthe King. In total. a combined edltion is about 1,200 pages ong, the As, Cs, Gs, and Ts in a person's chromosomes, staring with the two copies of chromosome | and ending with the two sex chromosomes. You can consider it a book made up only of four letters (A, C, G, and T) but about 64 billion of them,

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