The entire genetic material of a organism is called its genome. Just as a recipe book contains instructions for making different meals, an organism's genome contains instructions for making different proteins. All organisms are made up of proteins (for example, our hair is made up of a tough protein called 'keratin.') In order for our bodies to grow and repair, it is essential that we can make new proteins all the time. Every recipe book is different, and so is each organism's genome. The only organisms which have exactly the same genomes are identical twins!What material is a recipe book made out of ? Paper. The genome is made out of a special type of material called DNA (which stands for deoxyribonucleic acid). The pages of a recipe book are nice and flat, whereas DNA has a much more complicated shape. DNA is made up of two single strands which twist around each other to form a double-helix shape. The structure of DNA is really important to how it works, but we'll talk about that another time.Just as we wouldn't leave all of our recipe books untidily around the house, the genome is not just scattered around its own cell. Instead, the genome is carefully packaged up (to save space!) and stored in a special structure within the cell called the nucleus (eukaryotic cells). You could think of the nucleus like the shelf on which recipe books are stored. In some organisms without a nucleus (prokaryotic cells), the genome is stored a bit differently.The genome contains all of the information about an organism. It is therefore incredibly important. Scientists can use information from the genome to learn about all sorts of things, including illness and disease. This is invaluable to research into cures for diseases such as cancer.

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