Gene - National Human Genome Research Institute

A gene, in a common way of thinking about it, is a packet of information coding generally for a protein. Of course, [in] DNA, the gene doesn't do the work. It's ... Skiptomaincontent ​Gene = Thegeneisthebasicphysicalunitofinheritance.Genesarepassedfromparentstooffspringandcontaintheinformationneededtospecifytraits.Genesarearranged,oneafteranother,onstructurescalledchromosomes.Achromosomecontainsasingle,longDNAmolecule,onlyaportionofwhichcorrespondstoasinglegene.Humanshaveapproximately20,000genesarrangedontheirchromosomes. Illustration Narration Agenecouldbeasshortasafewhundredbasepairsoraslongasmanythousands.TheBRCA1andBRCA2genes,forinstance,areverylongandhuge.Thebeta-globingene,ontheotherhand,isonlyafewhundredofthesenucleotides.Agene,inacommonwayofthinkingaboutit,isapacketofinformationcodinggenerallyforaprotein.Ofcourse,[in]DNA,thegenedoesn'tdothework.It'stheproteinthat'sproducedfromthatthatcarriesoutthefunction.It'sgotten[a]littlemessyinthatonegenedoesn'tjustmakeoneprotein.Oftentimes,becauseofalternativesplicing,onegenecanproducemultipleproteins.Andofcoursetherearegenesthatdon'tevenmakeproteinsatall.TheymakeRNAsthathavesomeotherfunctionalrole.Andsomepeoplehavebeguntoquestionwhethertheterm"gene"isusefulbecauseit'sgottensocomplicated.Nottoworry,itisstillaveryusefulterm.Geneticistswouldn'tknowhowtohaveaconversationwithoutusingtheword. FrancisS.Collins,M.D.,Ph.D. Animation RelatedTerms Nucleosome Chromosome BasePair DeoxyribonucleicAcid(DNA) Genome Nucleus Protein BrowseTerms A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z FeaturedContent IntroductiontoGenomics PolygenicRiskScores