cen·tral dog·ma

the proposition that while genetic information is transferred from parent to offspring via DNA duplication, within the cell, genetic information is transferred from DNA to mRNA (transcription) and then to protein (translation); proposed by Francis Crick.

Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

The central dogma is the main thesis of molecular inheritance. In its simplest form, it states that DNA makes RNA, which makes protein; it is the pedagogical tenet that translation of a protein invariably follows a chain of molecular command, where DNA acts as the template for both its own replication and for the transcription to RNA—and, with subsequent maturation, to mRNA, which then serves as a template for translation into a protein

central dogma

Molecular biology The pedagogical tenet that translation of a protein invariably follows a chain of molecular command, where DNA acts as the template for both its own replication and for the transcription to RNA–and with subsequent maturation, to mRNA, which then serves as a template for translation into a protein. See DNA, Nucleic acid, Protein, Reverse transcription, RNA, RNA polymerase. Cf Prion.

central dogma

The proposition by Francis Crick (1916–) that, in genetics, the only possible progression was from DNA to RNA to protein. Embarrassingly, the discovery that retroviruses used RNA to make DNA demonstrated the riskiness of pronouncing dogmas in science.

Collins Dictionary of Medicine © Robert M. Youngson 2004, 2005

central dogma

the hypothesis (based on WEISMANNISM) that genetical information flows only in one direction, from DNA to RNA to PROTEIN, and not in the opposite direction. Thus, in general, changes to protein structures produced by external forces are not inherited. See SOMATIC MUTATION. The hypothesis has, however, been modified to account for the activity of the enzyme REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE, which transfers information ‘backwards’ from RNA to DNA.

Collins Dictionary of Biology, 3rd ed. © W. G. Hale, V. A. Saunders, J. P. Margham 2005

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References in periodicals archive

In this section, we are going to explore another counterexample to the "Central dogma"; the activity of transcription factors in assessing the state of metabolites in the cell, and so differentially affecting gene expression.

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(2) The central dogma in genetics is that individual genes (fixed sequences in the DNA) are copied to messenger RNA, which then exit the cell nucleus and attach to ribosomes.

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The central dogma is the agreed upon framework for understanding the transfer of information within and in between living organisms.

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Taken together, they make up the "central dogma" of biology:

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A central dogma of 20th-century education was that development and plasticity were reserved for children, and that the human brain changed little after childhood.

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This is the first step in the so-called central dogma of biology: DNA begets RNA begets protein.

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After an introduction to some of these key molecules and to the central dogma of molecular biology, we can begin to see the outlines of how such molecules can accomplish the tasks required of simple and then more complex life forms.

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For here is a central dogma of revisionism: we learn more from members of other religions than they do from us.

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In his provocative paper, Unraveling the DNA Myth: The Spurious Foundation of Genetic Engineering, Barry Commoner, senior scientist at the Center for Biology of Natural Systems at Queens College, stated that most of this brave new science is predicated upon a central dogma that is fundamentally and critically flawed.

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Out of the structure of DNA emerged the so-called central dogma of biology, from which all explanations of heredity and adaptation were supposed to flow.

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The central dogma of molecular biology--the proposition that information flows, in one direction, from DNA to RNA to protein--is hardly an archaic myth.

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