Project-TweakErs.com
Title
Project Tweakers Folding Team
Description
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the information storage device in all of our bodies; indeed, almost all life on earth relies on this molecule to hold the master instructions for building and operating a living organism.
The DNA code is based on four molecules: adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine, usually abbreviated as A, C, G, and T. These bases are strung together in a long row (the smallest human chromosome is 50 million bases, the largest is 280 million, there are 46 chromosomes in the human), in a very precise order. In fact, the order of these bases (which can be thought of as the letters forming the sentences of the instruction manual, using a four letter alphabet) is so important, there are many error correction mechanisms in place, and a totally redundant “backwards” copy is maintained on the opposite strand of the double-stranded DNA molecule. The system is so finely tuned that it can be expected to make a mistake only once every 10 to 100 billion bases.
Fidelity must be maintained, because this manual is copied over and over as the DNA molecule is duplicated when the cell containing it divides into two cells. If a mistake (called a mutation) sneaks into the code, the new cells relying on this changed code will be altered in some way (mutant), sometimes with little or no consequences, sometimes providing a previously unavailable benefit, and sometimes with catastrophic effects—death, disease, disfigurement, etc.
