The central dogma
Concept · Francis Crick · Biology, stage 1: Learn the vocabulary
The central dogma is Crick's statement about the direction in which sequence information moves: from nucleic acid to nucleic acid or from nucleic acid to protein, but never back out of a protein into a nucleic acid. In the ordinary case DNA is transcribed into RNA and RNA is translated into protein. Crick restated it in 1970 to correct the common misreading that DNA to RNA to protein was the only permitted route; reverse transcription from RNA back to DNA does occur and does not contradict the claim.
Why it matters
It fixes what molecular biology is looking for, and it rules out the inheritance of acquired characteristics at the molecular level, which is the point on which Lamarckian accounts fail.
Part of
The central dogma in the glossary
Sources
- Central dogma of molecular biology Wikipedia
- Central Dogma NHGRI Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms
- Molecular Biology Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyCovers what the dogma was actually claiming and how it has been misstated since.
