• Scipitie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    The"single cell pet" gets me even more… Like isn’t that a tad specific? Dogs? No prob! Rabbits? Be my guest. Amoeba? Fuck off, weirdo!

    • IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org
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      2 days ago

      Nope. RNA is chemically different: different sugar in the backbone, and there are wayyyy more than 4 RNA bases (like 12 iirc)

      • nis@feddit.dk
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        1 day ago

        Nice. I learned something new today 🙂

        Not sure where I picked up my belief that RNA was just one side of DNA.

    • DragonsInARoom@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Yes, some viruses are single strand RNA (+ssRNA or -ssRNA) the textbook Microbiology: with Diseases by Taxonomy by Robert W Bauman is a good reference with a section for both. (Does have sqeemish pictures though.) (And its on zlib.)

  • janNatan@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    Wait wait. What would happen if a long half-strand of DNA tried to pair with another but there was one letter wrong in the middle?

    • IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org
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      2 days ago

      Something called a “lesion” around a base mismatch, basically a bubble in the strand pairing. It can introduce kinks in the helix, and generally is the result of mutation in one strand.

    • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      If that’s how DNA worked, I imagine it just wouldn’t pair, but that’s not how DNA works. However there can be and are many mistakes in the transcription and translation of genes, they’re called mutations and they’re the mechanical cause of cancer. The kind of spontaneous mutation your imagining is unlikely to lead to cancer without other contributing factors, and the body has numerous control and correction mecahnisms, but there are billions of base pairs (i.e. A—T is one base pair) in each cell of the body getting transcribed and translated over and over and over, so quite a few mistakes get through.