65 Super Interesting Facts About DNA

Here are 65 super interesting facts about DNA. I hope the experience is as interesting for you as it was for me.

  1. DNA, your hereditary material, is short for deoxyribonucleic acid.
  2. Your DNA is a molecule made up of two chains coiling around one another to form the famous double helix structure thus the double stranded DNA test
  3. British biologist Francis Crick and American biologist James Watson discovered the two-strand model together.
  4. The strands they discovered are polynucleotides.
  5. A lot of nucleotides make up a polynucleotide.
  6. Nucleases make up nucleotides.
  7. We have four nucleases – Cytosine (C), which has the chemical formula C4H5N3O; guanine (G), which has the chemical formula C5H5N5O; adenine (A), which has the chemical formula C5H5N5; and thymine (T), which has the chemical formula C5H6N2O2.
  8. Each nuclease is in two groups. These groups are called pyrimidines and purines.
  9. The T and C are pyrimidines, while the A and G are purines.
  10. All of your DNA is made up of these four letters only (C, G, A, and T).
  11. Covalent bonds tie these nucleotides together in a chain called the phosphodiester linkage.
  12. DNA carries genetic instructions.
  13. These genetic instructions determine your development, functioning, growth, and reproduction.
  14. DNA carries the genetic instructions for every organism, you know.
  15. There is another kind of nucleic acid apart from DNA. It is known as RNA.
  16. RNA, which is also essential for gene expression, stands for ribonucleic acid.
  17. DNA and RNA are the two main types of nucleic acids in you.
  18. What is a nucleic acid? It is one of the four major macromolecules essential for life. The other three are carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids.
  19. The strands of your DNA, store identical biological sequence information.
  20. When these two strands go in opposite directions and separate, the information duplicates also. 
  21. Within eukaryotic cells (animals, plants, fungi, and protists), DNA is organized in chromosomes
  22. DNA was first discovered by the Swiss chemist Friedrich Miescher while he was researching the key components of white blood cells using salt solutions on pus-coated patient bandages that were sent to him by a local surgical clinic. 
  23. After Friedrich Miescher isolated DNA, the German biochemist Albrecht Kossel discovered the basic building blocks of nuclein.
  24. Friedrich Miescher gave DNA its present name, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
  25. Friedrich Miescher won him a Nobel Prize for the discovery of the basic blocks of nuclein.
  26. Mitosis is the process by which our cells segregate duplicated DNA.
  27. German anatomist Walther Flemming and German biologist Theodor Boveri discovered the process of mitosis (cell division). 
  28. Hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions stabilize the DNA double helix.
  29. Adenine has the chemical structure to create the only hydrogen with thymine, forming an A-T base pair. Similarly, guanine can only ever form a bond with cytosine, forming a G-C base pair.
  30. Modified (non-canonical) bases occur in DNA. 
  31. Sense (containing the same sequence as the mRNA) and anti-sense DNA sequences exist. 
  32. Did you know that DNA is like a twisted rope? A process called DNA supercoiling, which affects transcription, DNA replication, and chromosomal segregation.
  33. DNA telomeres, which exist at the end of a DNA, can fray and splinter over time.
  34. If that frayed DNA branches further, a third strand can occur.
  35. A gene, of which you have roughly 20, 000, is a sequence of DNA which your parents transferred to you, containing your genetic information.
  36. If your entire DNA was unwound and put end-to-end, it could be stretched to the sun and pulled back over six hundred times.
  37. No one has done it yet.
  38. Only 0.1% of your DNA is unique; you share the rest (99.9% of your DNA) with me and every other human being. 
  39. This 0.1% determines your appearance.
  40. Only 3% of your DNA is genes; the rest of the DNA controls the activity of these genes.
  41. The entire human genome has 20, 000 genes and contains 3 billion base pairs of DNA.
  42. The DNA from your saliva can reveal which world regions your ancestors may have lived hundreds to thousands of years ago (this isn’t completely accurate).
  43. More importantly, if you don’t know your biological father is, your DNA can reveal it (this is much more accurate than the DNA test mentioned above.)
  44. You, and all other human beings, share 60% of genes with fruit flies
  45.  2/3rd of those genes are known to be involved in cancer.
  46. We also share 98.7% of our DNA with chimpanzees and bonobos (pygmy chimpanzee.)
  47. You share 85% of your DNA with a mouse.
  48. You share 41% of your DNA with a banana.
  49. A powerful new technology called CRISPR, discovered by Yoshizumi Ishino, could allow scientists to edit genomes easily.
  50. CRISPR may lead us to the cure of many genetic diseases. The cure for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other genetic diseases may be just around the corner.
  51. To sequence, a DNA strand means to determine the order of nucleotides in your DNA.
  52. DNA testing now lets you sequence your full genome, all 6 billion letters, in a few days. 
  53. It wasn’t always this way. It took scientists 13 years to fully sequence the human genome the first time around. The marvel of modern technology, huh?
  54. Other than revealing close and distant relationships, DNA can also reveal your propensity for certain conditions. 
  55.  DNA testing is used for accurate disease diagnosis.
  56. Accurate diagnosis through DNA testing can prevent or at least delay a disease.
  57. Your DNA can move, even though it is not a living entity because as much as 50% of your genome is makes up sequences called jumping genes that can move.
  58. Only 3% of DNA can encode proteins; the rest is non-functional. 
  59. DNA can not only store genetic material, but it can also store digital information: 
  60. A fish named “Bdelloid rotifers” can eat and survive on foreign DNA.
  61. DNA is such a stable molecule that it can remain stable for 2000 years with only a little deterioration. 
  62. It would take you 29 years to type out your whole genome.
  63. Scientists conducting genomics research need DNA sequencing data to advance genomics research.
  64. The need for this data raises privacy concerns. You have a right to keep your medical information private because your genetic information can be misused.
  65. Rising interest in DNA testing is also leading to fears of genetic discrimination in the future.

I hope these 65 super interesting facts have helped to increase your knowledge of DNA and the testing we can do today. We have advanced so far in our scientific world today. We can now do DNA testing for weight loss, age prevention, athletic performance, and micronutrient absorption.

So what do you think? Wasn’t that super interesting? Which number was the most interesting for you? I love hearing from you. Please leave your comments and questions in the comment section below.

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12 thoughts on “65 Super Interesting Facts About DNA”

  1. Hello Laura, the DNA is really amazing to be learning about and I mist thank you for sharing such useful and educational articles. I had absolutely no idea that the RNA is an essential part of the nucleic acid and it’s fascinating to see how the human gene can be really great and how hereditary features can be passed from generation with ease. Can the human DNA be altered in any way?

    Reply
    • That is a great question. DNA can alter through mutation of the cells. It can also be changed or modified by our environment during childhood. DNA can temporarily modify due to environmental factors, yet it does not alter the sequencing. And last but not least, DNA can be changed in mental illness by stress. We have so much to learn in the years ahead. 

      Reply
  2. Now this is a really detailed outlook and overview about about DNA and it has provided a lot of information’s and facts that I never knew existed about it. To be honest, this is really massive and I’m delighted I came across it. Well! The makeup of our DNA is really cumbersome that is why it us very easy to figure out the differences easily. Thank you

    Reply
    • Yes, this is a lot of information. I enjoyed compiling it. But it is not so easy to test DNA. Compared to a few years ago, it may be, but it still takes highly trained technicians to determine the correct reading. I am delighted to report that DNA Is The Way uses an accredited lab to do all of our DNA testings for weight loss, age prevention, micronutrient absorption, and athletic performance. 

      Reply
  3. Oh I had a lot of interesting facts to pick from all that you shared on this place today. For example the fact that just from my saliva, it could be deduced where my ancestors has lived thousands of years ago. Wow, that’s whole lot. Also the fact that a very small percentage of my DNA is different and I share the rest with every human on Earth. It’s always good to learn something new everyday and thanks to you, I have learnt another new thing.

    Reply
    • Yes, Riley, that was #38 you spoke of here. If I am correct, you can only go back five generations to check the ancestor. Now you can know what nationality you are, but it is not as accurate when you go further than five generations—just another exciting bit of information. 

      Reply
  4. Wow! That was educative!

    I learnt one or two about about DNA from my secondary school days but this is deep! I never knew that DNA contains so much information about human life.

    The most amazing is that “Accurate diagnosis through DNA testing can prevent or at least delay a disease” ! To me that is breakthrough in the science.

    Thanks for sharing this “super interesting facts about DNA”.

    Reply
    • Lizzy, Yes, that is a tremendous breakthrough. We have so far to go. Did you know a person can have their DNA tested for the absorption of micronutrients with a simple buccal swab at home? And some autoimmune diseases are directly linked to micronutrient malabsorption. 

      Reply
  5. This was an interesting read. It also transported me back some years to high school. I remember studying for my exams and seeing pictures of Watson and Crick (we always named Watson first, I don’t know why). I also remember repeating several times “ribonucleic acid” to not forget it. Wao, time flies!

    It has always been astonishing for me that so much decisive information is stored in our DNA. Progress done in “cracking the code” will definitely revolutionize the World.

    Reply
    • That is awesome. It sounds like you remember quite a bit of your teaching. Scientists have come so far in such a short time with DNA discovery. I can only imagine what will happen next. I mean, we can now determine the best way for a person to lose weight based on their DNA. Who would have thought?

      Reply
  6. DNA is the make-up of individuals and what really distinguishes us from just the norms and the animals and that is why we have to reaally protect that. All these interesting make up facts about humanity and us and what makes us stand out and what is embedded in us that makes us different and unique is all in the DNA. Thanks for this post

    Reply
    • You are right to an extent. But, what I found so interesting was #38 “Only 0.1% of your DNA is unique; you share the rest (99.9% of your DNA) with me and every other human being.” So we are individuals in our DNA to the tune of only 0.1%. Yet we are all made different. I am sure we have only scratched the surface of DNA. 

      Reply

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