Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the hereditary material in humans and most other organisms. According to an article published by the National Institute of Health’s U.S. National Library of Medicine, most DNA is located in the cell nucleus where it is called nuclear DNA, but a small amount of DNA is also found in the mitochondria that convert food into energy.
DNA bases ‘pair-up’ with each other – A with T and C with G, to form units called base pairs. These pairs bond with sugars and phosphates to form a double helix. DNA from humans is made up of approximately 3 billion nucleotides bases.
The important property of DNA is that it can replicate – making copies of itself. Think of the double helix as your personal bar code. Also, consider our DNA sequence is mostly similar to that of a chimpanzee. Only a fraction of distinctively different sequences makes us human.
The sequence, or the order, of the bases is what determines our life instructions according to an article by Epigenetics Simplified, July 30, 2013.