• Question: How many DNA strands are in the human body (on average)

    Asked by to Anna, Jane, Iain, Nick on 19 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Anna Middleton

      Anna Middleton answered on 19 Mar 2014:


      Hi pandagamer12
      DNA is double-stranded so it is two strands that coil around each other. Do you mean how long is the DNA in the body? This is a really great website that describes things like this http://www.yourgenome.org/

    • Photo: Jane Charlesworth

      Jane Charlesworth answered on 19 Mar 2014:


      Each cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes and each chromosome is made up of a super-long pair of DNA strands coiled around each other. There are about 15 trillion cells in our bodies, so that is a lot of DNA strands.

      When we look at DNA strands, we are often interested in the genes which code for proteins. Those can be found on either strand of DNA.

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