What are some of the benefits of squeezing so much data into virtually every cell in the body?

Question

What are some of the benefits of squeezing so much data into virtually every cell in the body?
Why did we not evolve with one central repository of DNA rather than having it replicated throughout the body?
Assume that the hereditary information carried in genes and DNA is responsible for a lot of the differences we observe in humans and other living things. How could just four different bases in DNA strands be responsible for the almost endless variety found in nature?

Yes it's Homework.. and Yes I need help.

Answer 1

Most of your body is continually growing. As your outer skin layers wear off, new layers form underneath. As cells die, others divide to make up for the lack.

You started life as a single cell, formed by the union of an egg and a sperm, with a single DNA strand. That strand contains a complete representation of everything about your physiology. It also contains instructions on how to form that body by repeated divisions of that single cell. Each cell needs to know when it should: (1) split into two, identical to it; (2) split into different kinds of cell, for tissue differentiation; (3) stop growing because the body or organ is mature; (4) grow again to replace tissue lost by injury. All of that is encoded into one molecule. I can't believe this process came about by accident.

Answer 2

Not making it easy for us, are you?

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The human genome does contain a lot of information, to be sure. Fortunately, it doesn't take up very much space. Suffice it to say, DNA has an amazing ability to store information in a small area.

Why not just have a single, "central DNA repository"?

Imagine, if you will, that you, the cell, wake up in the morning and you want some breakfast, but you have no idea how to cook. You need a cookbook.........

The problem is this: the *only place* you can find a book, of any sort, is the Library of Congress!

Then, you have to wait in line for 10 years, because *everybody else* wants to read the cookbook too. Once you actually got the book, you couldn't read it because it was all in code; so you have to copy it by hand, word for word, so you can walk all the way the back home and actually translate your copy!

Wouldn't it be much easier, just to have your own *personal* cookbook? (Johannes Gutenberg certainly thought so........)

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"How could just four different bases in DNA strands be responsible for the almost endless variety found in nature?........"

This question is analogous to asking: "how can only two binary numbers, 1 and 0, account for all the the almost endless variety found on the internet?"

I guess the best answer I can give, is that the *method* of storing the information, is not as important as the number of different *patterns*, and *combinations* you can make with that information......

It's important to understand that, while DNA is crucial to life, DNA is not, in itself, alive. DNA doesn't actually do very much, it only has two basic functions: 1) storing instructions on how to make proteins, and 2)passing that information on to the next generation.

Most of the thousands of other functions in the cell are carried out by *proteins.* Proteins do all of the actual work in the cell; until you understand exactly how each individual *protein* works, mapping out your DNA is meaningless......

What's worse, most genes can actually make 2, 3, 4, or more different proteins. Some genes, like those that make antibodies, can help make literally millions of unique proteins.......

anyway.......

Hope that is instructive,
~W.O.M.B.A.T.

Answer 3

4 bases is largely enough to code for the 20-odd amino-acids (in fact enough to code for 64 different amino-acids).
If you compare with the number of books, letters, e-mails and other crap are written with an alphabet of 26 and 10 digits ...
so are the possibilities for about the same number of amino-acids to build proteines. And the proteines are for the major part only helpers to build structures of other substances, like bones, wood ....
The combinatorial possibilities are 'almost endless' !

Answer 4

something to keep ordinary people like scientists busy thinking about things they think can figure out