GCSE: Size Order of: Nucleus, Chromosomes etc...

Biology discussion, revision, exam and homework help.

Announcements Posted on
Please change your TSR password 23-05-2013
Enter our travel-writing competition for the chance to win a Nikon 1 J3 camera 20-05-2013
IMPORTANT: You must wait until midnight (morning exams)/4.30AM (afternoon exams) to discuss Edexcel exams and until 1pm/6pm the following day for STEP and IB exams. Please read before posting, including for rules for practical and oral exams. 28-04-2013
Sign in to Reply
  1. Instinct01's Avatar
    • Junior Member
    • Posts: 71
    GCSE: Size Order of: Nucleus, Chromosomes etc...
    Hello,

    Kind of confused with regards the size order of the following: cell, nucleus, chromosome, gene and DNA... from what I've seen online there are a lot of different answers, but the most common one is (in descending order in terms of size):

    Cell
    Nucleus
    DNA
    Chromosome
    Gene

    But, I've just been studying this, and quoting from my textbook:

    "Chromosomes are made up of large molecules of DNA..." and "A gene is a small section of DNA"... so surely if chromosomes are made up of DNA, then they must be larger, like proteins are larger than individual amino acids.

    Any help would be much appreciated.
    Last edited by Instinct01; 22-04-2012 at 13:19.
  2. sn8595's Avatar
    • Respected Member
    • Posts: 215
    Re: GCSE: Size Order of: Nucleus, Chromosomes etc
    (Original post by Instinct01)
    Hello,

    Kind of confused with regards the size order of the following: cell, nucleus, chromosome, gene and DNA... from what I've seen online there are a lot of different answers, but the most common one is (in descending order in terms of size):

    Cell
    Nucleus
    DNA
    Chromosome
    Gene

    But, I've just been studying this, and quoting from my textbook:

    "Chromosomes are made up of large molecules of DNA..." and "A gene is a small section of DNA"... so surely if chromosomes are made up of DNA, then they must be larger, like proteins are larger than individual amino acids.

    Any help would be much appreciated.
    The explanation in the textbook is right. A gene is a small section of DNA, in other words, a part of a chromosome. Yet, (and I'm only guessing,) the order of size you found out probably refers to the total amount of DNA in a cell, which consists of all 46 chromosomes (in humans, I mean).

    Hope this helps!
  3. Instinct01's Avatar
    • Junior Member
    • Posts: 71
    Re: GCSE: Size Order of: Nucleus, Chromosomes etc
    (Original post by sn8595)
    The explanation in the textbook is right. A gene is a small section of DNA, in other words, a part of a chromosome. Yet, (and I'm only guessing,) the order of size you found out probably refers to the total amount of DNA in a cell, which consists of all 46 chromosomes (in humans, I mean).

    Hope this helps!
    Oh... yeah, that makes a lot of sense so it's probably right, surprised I didn't think about that before!

    Thank you very much
  4. sn8595's Avatar
    • Respected Member
    • Posts: 215
    Re: GCSE: Size Order of: Nucleus, Chromosomes etc
    (Original post by Instinct01)
    Oh... yeah, that makes a lot of sense so it's probably right, surprised I didn't think about that before!

    Thank you very much
    Pleasure's mine!
Sign in to Reply
Share this discussion:  
Article updates
Moderators

We have a brilliant team of more than 60 volunteers looking after discussions on The Student Room, helping to make it a fun, safe and useful place to hang out.

Reputation gems:
The Reputation gems seen here indicate how well reputed the user is, red gem indicate negative reputation and green indicates a good rep.
Post rating score:
These scores show if a post has been positively or negatively rated by our members.