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Why Is DNA Called a Blueprint?

DNA is such a complex concept that most people need some sort of metaphor in order to interpret what it really is. The metaphor of calling DNA the blueprint of all life helps people understand what function DNA actually plays. Understanding the actual complexity of how the millions of pieces of genetic code combine to form DNA is something that even the leading scientists in the world are still learning about.

What is a Blueprint
- Blueprints are the complex drawings that industrial and construction professionals use when building something. The drawings are very detailed and specific, and tell the workers exactly where everything in the item being constructed needs to go. It tells them how big each item needs to be, what it needs to be made of and how it needs to be arranged in regards to the bigger structure. The level of detail in a proper blueprint is why it makes a good frame of reference for DNA.
DNA
- DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. Living things are the way they are because of the pattern of DNA inside the body. DNA exists inside every single cell. The complex makeup of DNA determines all of our characteristics. Around 3 billion pieces of DNA are present inside a person. The order that those pieces end up being put into is known as the DNA sequence, and it is the sequences that determines all the characteristics that make every person unique from every other.
Materials
- On a blueprint, the way that things are drawn, a legend and notes indicates what type of material is supposed to be used in a specific portion of the drawing. For instance, steel support beams might be used for the internal structure of a skyscraper, while heavy glass is used on the outside of the building. The DNA in your body contains messages to your body in the form genes. As the body is formed, these genes dictate to your body whether it will be short or tall, the color of pigment that will develop in your skin and hair, and a number of other characteristics. In other words, the code dictates the types of cells that will be formed and what their characteristics will be, similar to the way a building made of wood is differentiated from a building made from steel on blueprints.
The Builder
- When someone uses a blueprint to make something, they probably work in construction or are another skilled craftsman of some kind. In the case of DNA, it is the cells of the body that follow the instructions contained in the DNA. Proteins are the actual substances used to make up the various parts of a cell. As a cell creates protein, it uses DNA as the reference for how and what kind of proteins to make.

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