Understand and explain that every organism requires a set of instructions that specifies its traits, that this hereditary information (DNA) contains genes located in the chromosomes of each cell, and that heredity is the passage of these instructions from one generation to another.

SC.7.L.16.1 (DOK 3)

• DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. It is the ​molecule that contains the information that tells all organisms how to grow and function.

• Because it is passed from parent to offspring, it is also called hereditary material.

• All cells contain DNA. In prokaryotes, it is found floating the cytoplasm. In eukaryotes, it is found within the nucleus.

• DNA is shaped like a double helix (twisted ladder), with the sides of the molecule creating the sugar phosphate backbone and the steps containing complementary nitrogen bases (adenine/thymine and cytosine/guanine).

• During most of a cell's life cycle, DNA is loosel​y gathered into a form called chromatin. In preparation for cell division (mitosis), DNA coils tightly around proteins to form chromosomes.

• Sections of c​hromosomes that code for certain proteins and traits are call genes.