The genetic information, which is almost always stored in the form of DNA molecules, consists of the sequence of the four building blocks of these long chain molecules.

The genetic information stored in the form of DNA is mostly used for the production of proteins. Proteins are produced by the transcription of certain regions of the DNA molecules (genes) into mRNA molecules, which subsequently are translated into proteins. Apart from the genes, DNA molecules contain a number of further important regions, which determine the time and tissue, where a given gene is used or which contain the information for tRNA or rRNA molecules.