I know that the DNA contains the genetic blueprint of how living organisms build themslves, but does it explain all of life’s stages?
Consider the union of a human sperm cell and an egg : each entity contains its own DNA; yet the union of the two gives rise to a gamete, with its own DNA. What code “tells” the gamete cell when to establish its own DNA, and when to begin its fissioning and growth? Is there some other coding available to the cell, apart from its DNA, that activates these functions?
I recall the debate after the book “JURASSUC PARK” came out-most geneticists said that even if you had the dinosaur DNA, inserting it into another animal’s eggs (a frog, I belive) could never result in a dinosaur-there are other factors necessary, besides the dino DNA-what are these substances?
Dinner and cocktails usually work.
to really get a nice handle on how DNA works, you have to think of a continuum. like, think across the fourth dimension. much of what a zygote does is determined by its own DNA, as well as by the DNA of its mother.
jb
p.s.- also, look into proteomics. it’s not just DNA that tells the cell what to do, but also the different proteins that are made from the DNA’s ‘recipe’, as well as any internal chemical changes that occur when two or more of these proteins interact. all in all, very complicated.
Well, as far as I can make sense of your question, DNA activation is controlled by transcription factors and other proteins. They are coded for by DNA, like all proteins, but when they’re made, they control gene expression, usually by responding directly or indirectly to some external signal.
And the zygote (look up the word “gamete” - you’re misuing it) does not “establish its own DNA,” whatever that means. Its DNA is simply the DNA it receives from the two parent gametes.
The problem with the movie Jurassic Park was that it was stated that they hadn’t recovered all of the dinosaur DNA, only a small part of it. What they were supposedly doing was taking that part of the dinosaur DNA and combining it with frog DNA. Of course, if you had done that, the resulting animal was as likely to look like a frog as like a dinosaur.