Genetics

The central Dogma

What is the ‘Central Dogma’?

The ‘Central Dogma’ is the process by which the instructions in DNA are converted into a functional product. It was first proposed in 1958 by Francis Crick, discoverer of the structure of DNA.

  • The central dogma of molecular biology explains the flow of genetic information, from DNA ?to RNA?, to make a functional product, a protein?.
  • The central dogma suggests that DNA contains the information needed to make all of our proteins, and that RNA is a messenger that carries this information to the ribosomes?.
  • The ribosomes serve as factories in the cell where the information is ‘translated’ from a code into the functional product.
  • The process by which the DNA instructions are converted into the functional product is called gene expression?.
  • Gene expression has two key stages – transcription? and translation?.
  • In transcription, the information in the DNA of every cell is converted into small, portable RNA messages.
  • During translation, these messages travel from where the DNA is in the cell nucleus to the ribosomes where they are ‘read’ to make specific proteins.
  • The central dogma states that the pattern of information that occurs most frequently in our cells is:
    • From existing DNA to make new DNA (DNA replication?)
    • From DNA to make new RNA (transcription)
    • From RNA to make new proteins (translation).

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From DNA to Protein