Which acid is responsible for your genetic makeup?

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) is the molecule that carries the genetic instructions vital for the growth, development, functioning, and reproduction of all known organisms and many viruses. It serves as the blueprint for an organism's traits and characteristics, storing the information needed for creating proteins through the process of transcription and translation. DNA is composed of two strands that form a double helix, and it specifies a sequence of nucleotides that ultimately dictates protein synthesis—essentially coding for all aspects of an organism's biology.

Ribonucleic Acid (RNA), while also crucial in the process of protein synthesis and gene expression, acts mainly as a messenger and is not the primary source of genetic information. It is derived from DNA but does not contain the entire genetic blueprint itself. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins but do not store genetic information. Similarly, fatty acids are components of lipids and play no role in genetic makeup. Therefore, it is DNA that unequivocally holds the key to an organism's genetic coding, making it the correct choice in this context.