A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. Genes hold the information to build and maintain our cells and pass genetic traits to our offspring. A gene is a segment of DNA that, taken as a whole, specifies a trait.
A gene is encoded in the sequence of the four bases (A, G, C and T) along the backbone of the DNA strand. This information is read using the genetic code, which specifies the sequence of the amino acids within proteins. The code is read by copying stretches of DNA into the related nucleic acid RNA, in a process called transcription.
Gene are determined by a portion of DNA that contains both “coding” sequences that determine what the gene does, and “non-coding” sequences that determine when the gene is active.
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