Why the Central Dogma: on the nature of the great biological exclusion principle
Eugene V. Koonin
Correspondence: Eugene V Koonin koonin@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Biology Direct 2015, 10:52 doi:10.1186/s13062-015-0084-3
Published: 16 September 2015
Abstract
The Central Dogma of molecular biology posits that transfer of information from proteins back to nucleic acids does not occur in biological systems. I argue that the impossibility of reverse translation is indeed a major, physical exclusion principle that emerges due to the transition from the digital information carriers, nucleic acids, to analog information carriers, proteins, which involves irreversible suppression of the digital information.
This article was reviewed by Itai Yanai, Martin Lercher and Frank Eisenhaber.
Keywords: Central Dogma; Digital information; Analogous information; Translation; Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases
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