General Question

Trillian's avatar

Can anyone answer a DNA question?

Asked by Trillian (21148points) March 10th, 2010

I was thinking about this and wondered if it was even a legitimate question. The 22 pair of autosomes and one pair of chromosomes attach to the string made of phosphates and sugars. Scientists study the autosomes to look for genetic traits. What about the “string” itself. If the string is made of phosphates and sugars, is it completely uniform, top to bottom? Or is it possible that pair number one for one person is attached to a portion of string made of a phosphate, and pair number one for another person is attached to a portion of string made of a sugar. Would this be a further variable factor in deciding genetic make-up? Is this even a reasonable question? I don’t know enough about it to know if this question has any validity. I basically want to know if the string is exactly the same for everyone or if there is a possibility that the string composition is random. IF it is a valid question, can anyone give me a link to any studies that have been done? I hope this question makes sense to someone who can tell me if I’m barking into the wind.

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6 Answers

sleepdoc's avatar

My understanding is that the backbone of DNA is uniform. So I don’t think it would play a role at all.

Fred931's avatar

Just phosphates and sugar lined up in a neat, uniform layer.

nikipedia's avatar

DNA wouldn’t hold together properly if there were irregularities in the sugar-phosphate backbone. This picture shows how the base pairs connect to the backbone.

Further, we have no reason to believe the backbone carries any information. And if it did, we have no reason to believe that information would be expressed in any usable way. The base pairs in a DNA sequence are transcribed into RNA which is translated into protein. Those proteins are responsible for the structure and function of each and every cell. The backbone, on the other hand, does not seem to be connected to any kind of analogous process that could generate a meaningful structural or functional result at the cellular level.

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

Friedrich Miescher???Is that you??? ;))

Trillian's avatar

@lucillelucillelucille No, it’s just my stupid ass. Thanks everyone. At least I know now. Duh. I should stick to writing.

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

@LOL!
Oh,C’mon now! :))

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