Expert: Walter Hintz - 12/29/2009

Question
What does informational sequence mean?  Can you explain or give me a good definition, and how can I determine between this and a template sequence?

Answer
Hi Victoria
I am not sure but my guess is that you are thinking about Nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) In that case the DNA sequence encodes information for protein synthesis  For example let's look at the Hemoglobin molecule. It consists of two chains of amino acids and the sequence of these amino acids has been determined by the sequence of the DNA nucleotides (informational sequence# Replication of the DNA results in the formation of messenger RNA #(mRNA)# The amino acids are lined up along the mRNA by the base pairing rule.  The mRNA becomes the template for the formation of the protein #hemoglobin So you see that the sequence of amino acids that spell out hemoglobin are the consequence of the DNA sequence.