Genomics Tutorial

Understanding Genomes

A genome is the complete set of genetic instructions for an organism. It includes all the DNA molecules found in the nucleus of a cell. Imagine a genome as a vast library containing all the information needed to build and maintain an organism.

The size and complexity of genomes vary greatly among different organisms. Humans, for example, have a genome with approximately 3 billion base pairs of DNA, while bacteria might have only a few million.

Chromosome Structure