Khanacademy: Biology: How Amino Acids And Proteins In An Animals’ Cells Help Jellyfish Glow:

Genes and traits in animals can help some animals to do certain things. According to traits, some types of spiders can spin with seven different types of silk. And elephants have a very low risk of getting cancer.

And some kinds of ocean jellyfish now are able to glow-in-the-dark, or biduminescence. But how is it possible that some kinds of jellyfish can, and other cannot?

The chromosomes of the animal determines that.

Each animal and plant, no matter how tiny or large, has DNA. And the DNA are made out of four different kinds of nucleotides, each a tiny bit different, which make up the characteristics of the animals.

The four different types of nucleotides are:

1. A.
2. C.
3. T.
4. G.

Those stand for:

1. A – Adenine.
2. C – Cytosine.
3. G – Guanine.
4. T – Thymine.

Which are all different chemicals and proteins, which make up the cells and parts of the jellyfish.

This certain kind of jellyfish which glows in the dark has a certain type of protein inside it’s genes and DNA. That protein is called:

Green Fluorescent Protein, or GFP.

That is located inside the cells of the jellyfish, which allows it to glow in the dark, while other jellyfish, who do not have that type of protein, cannot.

Each kind of animal has some special characteristics, and are different from every other. How they are different, however, really depends on their genes, their proteins, and their DNA!

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Thanks for reading!