central dogma
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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.
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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.McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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