2010 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript

This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2010. The NHGRI Director and many genomics experts from across NHGRI took questions from students, teachers and the general public on topics ranging from basic genomic research, to the genetic basis of disease, to ethical questions about genetic privacy.

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How did the different nucleotides get their name?
     Sarah Harding, M.P.H: I am a Community Outreach Analyst at the NHGRI. My programs involve outreach to diverse communities, and exploring how genetics and genomics can best be communicated to the public. This is a great question, and since I did not know the answer, I looked it up on www.etymonline.com. All of the nucleotides are named by the substance from which they were derived. For instance, tyrosine was first isolated from cheese. The Greek word for cheese is tyros. -ine is a chemical suffix. The same occurred with adenine...aden in Greek means 'gland', and it was first isolated from the pancreas. Thanks for helping me to learn something new today!
Belle HS in MO (11th grade student)

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