The bases on the twenty-three chromosome pairs (about three billion bases, in total) are grouped into aggregates (around 25,000 of them) called genes. And each of these genes, which may contain as few as 100 bases and up to as many as several million, ultimately directs the formation of a unique protein. However, these genes do not translate into a protein directly. Instead, they do so through the intermediate formation of ribonucleic acid (RNA) (Figure 8-2), a similar strand of bases that mirrors a DNA strand.
