A gene is a part of DNA and holds the genetic information that keeps the cell functioning and the traits that are passed down to the offspring. Genes can be found along strands of both DNA and RNA. Genes play a major role in a vast variety of biological traits, such as a person’s eye color, body build, blood type, and links to diseases just to name a few. In one human cell, scientists have figured there to be “fewer than 40,000 genes” which is an extraordinary amount less than the original thought of some “100,000 that many had predicted” per human cell (last name para #). The scientists of today have decided “that only about 3 to 4 percent of a person's genes actually have a function“, while the rest of the genetic material can be considered “junk DNA” (para #). Junk DNA is exactly what it seems, meaning it is DNA with no real purpose, at least to our knowledge as of right now. Knowing that such a low percentage of genes actually matter, it will make genetic modification easier to be produced and passed on to the offspring of that organism, or specifically that human. It is already known that mice have been genetically modified and had these modifications passed on to their offspring. The next step is figuring out how to do so in humans. But human genomes are more complex than those of a mouse and therefore will take a lot more research and time to perfect.
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