What is a gene?
Our DNA consists of over 20,000 genes that make up who we are and what we look like. Different DNA sequences are inherited from each parent and these sequences encode for different proteins, which dictate cell function and change aspects such as eye and hair color, height, blood type, etc. [1] These hereditary differences in nucleotide sequences that we call genes are very important and make up over 40% of your genome, making you who you are at the genetic level!
references
[1] Portin, P., & Wilkins, A. (2017). The Evolving Definition of the Term "Gene". Genetics, 205(4), 1353–1364. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.116.196956
This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 564, a capstone course at UW-Madison.