Genetics Info & Tutorial: DNA

A supplement to the 2008 Cornsnake Morph Guide


	Genetics tutorial index of pages:

1- DNA	8- Recessive
2- Codons	9- Inheritance
3- Proteins	10- Punnett squares
4- Mutations	11- More Punnett squares
5- Chromosomes	12- Is it Het?
6- Chromosome Pairs	13- Double Mutants
7- Something-zygous	14- Links & Glossary


	To return to this index, click Genetics* on the navigation bar to the left.*

You’ve probably seen something like the picture at left. This is a graphic representation of DNA. DNA is a substance that encodes all the information needed to build and keep an animal working.

The first part of this tutorial will be a quick demonstration of how DNA is involved in mutations, such as amelanism in snakes.

DNA is a long strand of “base pairs” as seen below. Blue always matches up to yellow, and green always matches up to red. The sequence of these base pairs is what encodes the information.




Each group of 3 base pairs is called a codon. There are 64 different combinations, and each one stands for something. These codons are kind of like the letters in our alphabet: when put together, they can spell out how to build a protein. A gene is a group of codons. The gene below contains the instructions for how to make a specific protein.



Next page: Codons --->

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