DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) is a double stranded molecule which carries the genetic instructions to create an organism be that plant, animal, or virus. Each DNA strand is made up of a chain of nucleotides, the genetic instruction letters A, C, T and G. You can imagine these instruction letters to be an alphabet which is used to write the instruction book.
The whole book is the genome, each chapter is a chromosome, and each paragraph is a gene. If there is an error, known as a mutation, in the instruction book this can make parts of the instructions unreadable or change the meaning of the instructions. This could cause serious issues like health disorders or simply variations in the colours between animals.
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