Video Transcript
What key term is given to a section of DNA that contains the information needed to
produce a certain characteristic, e.g., eye color?
In order to answer this question correctly, let’s review some terminology relating to
genetics. Genetics is the study of DNA and how different characteristics can be inherited from
our parents. DNA is located in the nucleus of our cells. Our DNA is organized into structures called chromosomes. In most of our cells, we have 46 chromosomes. We can see one here as an example.
If we unravel one of these chromosomes, we can see that DNA is wrapped up very
tightly in the chromosome. Different sections of DNA can provide instructions for different characteristics. We call these genes. Here you can see two genes. One gene might give instructions for eye color, and another gene might give
instructions for hair color. These are just two examples of characteristics that our genes provide. Scientists believe that there’s about 30000 genes in our DNA, and all of these genes
give instructions for different characteristics.
Now let’s see if we can answer our question. The key term given to a section of DNA that contains the information needed to
produce a certain characteristic is a gene.
