To rebuild yourself moment to moment

Let’s approach this from the view point of our inner biology.

DNA is a double stranded Master Key of the cell, it is the cell’s intelligence. It is only ever broken down in special circumstances but it never breaks down back into RNA strands.  It’s life span is long and it stores information, has good stability and forms a double helix

RNA on the other hand takes a copy of the DNA but it isn’t the original DNA, just a snapshot of it. Unlike DNA it doesn’t store information but it uses information for short term adventures. This means it is less stable and often seen as a single strand in many shapes.

When DNA opens up slightly RNA is able to copy its code and from this builds a complementary RNA strand. DNA will close itself back up and will remain copied but unchanged.

As a rule:

DNA is a permanent genetic code within the nucleus of our cells.

RNA is made from DNA, used and degraded after some time.

RNA does not overwrite DNA.

The RARE exceptions:

HIV – new DNA is added in through viral RNA into the original DNA

Retrotransposons – RNA copies itself back into the DNA, not replacing DNA but adding itself on.

RNA editing – once RNA is copied from the DNA it alters itself and changes the RNA sequence. DNA remains the same. Used for flexibility not permanence.