The digital code of DNA
Abstract
The discovery of the structure of DNA transformed biology profoundly, catalysing the sequencing of the human genome and engendering a new view of biology as an information science. Two features of DNA structure account for much of its remarkable impact on science: its digital nature and its complementarity, whereby one strand of the helix binds perfectly with its partner. DNA has two types of digital information - the genes that encode proteins, which are the molecular machines of life, and the gene regulatory networks that specify the behaviour of the genes.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- January 2003
- DOI:
- 10.1038/nature01410
- Bibcode:
- 2003Natur.421..444H