Unit 3 Biochemistry: DNA is kept in cells, however, if laid out end to end, it would form a 3 meter line, and be made up of 6 billion base pairs, how do our cells fit this massive amount of information into each cell?

What are histones, and how do they help DNA fit into a cell?

Question

DNA is kept in cells, however, if laid out end to end, it would form a 3 meter line, and be made up of 6 billion base pairs, how do our cells fit this massive amount of information into each cell?

What are histones, and how do they help DNA fit into a cell?

fahr dat · Accepted Answer

DNA is extremely long, and so our body's cells choose to coil our DNA strands upon itself until it takes on the shape of a chromosome. But for our DNA to coil, it needs something to coil upon; our body uses + charged proteins called histones as "spools" for our DNA molecules to make coils.

Unit 3 Biochemistry

DNA is kept in cells, however, if laid out end to end, it would form a 3 meter line, and be made up of 6 billion base pairs, how do our cells fit this massive amount of information into each cell? What are histones, and how do they help DNA fit into a cell?

DNA is extremely long, and so our body's cells choose to coil our DNA strands upon itself until it takes on the shape of a chromosome. But for our DNA to coil, it needs something to coil upon; our body uses + charged proteins called histones as "spools" for our DNA molecules to make coils.

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