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Reverse Transcription and the Central Dogma

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Book cover Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology 3

Part of the book series: Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology ((PMSB,volume 3))

Abstract

The Central Dogma of molecular biology which postulates the unidirectional transmission of genetic specifications for protein biosynthesis was enunciated by Crick (1958) who proposed explicitly that “once ‘information’ has passed into protein it cannot get out again. In more detail, the transfer of information from nucleic acid to nucleic acid, or from nucleic acid to protein may be possible, but transfer from protein to protein or from protein to nucleic acid is impossible. Information means here the precise determination of sequence either of bases in the nucleic acids or of amino acids in the protein.”

“Molecular biologists have a religion all of their own in which Nobel prize winner Francis Crick is the prophet and the DNA molecule is the icon. Molecular biologists have a ‘trinity’ of three kinds of molecules — DNA, RNA and the protein molecules — which correspond to each other on a unit-for-unit informational basis. They have a ‘dogma’ (and they call it a dogma) which says that ‘information’ — that is the molecular pattern — passes from DNA to RNA to protein but does not pass in the reverse direction.” Potter (1964)

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  1. Fred E. Hahn
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Hahn, F.E. (1973). Reverse Transcription and the Central Dogma. In: Hahn, F.E. (eds) Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology 3. Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology, vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65578-4_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65578-4_1

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