• Question: What is DNA and is it possible to Change it to make are on animals

    Asked by KaiF to Olivia, James on 19 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Olivia Lynes

      Olivia Lynes answered on 19 Mar 2015:

      DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid (which A-level biology has meant that is forever in my brain).

      It carries all the genetic material to make a living organism and can replicate itself many times over. It’s made up of tiny parts called chromosomes which combine to make different traits. You get one chromosome each from parent and these combine to traits like eye colour and and hair colour.

      I don’t know much about changing DNA!

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 19 Mar 2015:

      Hi KaiF,

      Your DNA can change, but only with small mutations. A great example of this is the damage that is done to DNA by nuclear radioactivity. After the Chernobyl explosion, many survivors close to the explosion had children with genetic disorders because their bodies had changed due to the DNA. They also got lots of cancers as this caused their bodies to mutate.

      However, we can’t change our DNA to become different animals, that would require to great a change. There are some animals (such as the horse and donkey) who can breed and have an offspring (the mule) that mixes teh DNA of the two species to make the third species, but it only happens when the two species are already closely related.

      A lot of evidence suggests that humans (Home Sapiens) and our predcessor Homo Erectus inter-bred, and this can be seen in DNA tests of humans some of whom share (I think) up to about 2% of their DNA with Homo Erectus fossils!

Comments