Home Page Introduction Genes play a complex and not yet fully understood role in all living things. Top of Document Home Page Genes Like recipes, genes provide instructions about how to make something, indicating what ingredients go in and in what order. Along with environmental influences, genes and processes inside the body combine to do more than just determine eye and hair color and other traits inherited from our parents. For example, genes ensure that we have two hands and can use them to do things, like play the piano. Genes alone are not all-powerful.
Most genes can do little until spurred on by other substances.
Each of these messages is used to build a certain protein. Faulty proteins can lead to cell malfunction, disease, and death. Within the nucleus of every human cell, two long, thread-like DNA strands encode the instructions for making all proteins needed for life. Each DNA strand bears four types of coding molecules or bases. The sequence of bases in a gene is the code for making a protein.