Title:

Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

Creator:

Crick, Francis, 1916-2004

Date:

8 August 1970

Description:

In this article Crick explained how his theory regarding the flow of genetic information in the cell, which he had introduced in 1957 as the "Central dogma" of molecular biology, was well able to accommodate recent findings by Howard Temin and David Baltimore that certain oncogenic RNA viruses direct synthesis of DNA in virus-infected cells, a process that came to be called reverse transcription. Contrary to the misconceptions of critics, Crick had not ruled out this form of residue-by-residue transfer of sequence information from RNA to DNA, although he expected it to be rare. (Indeed, it had not been shown to occur in cells other than those infected by viruses.) Moreover, the centerpiece of his theory, that sequential information used to synthesize proteins could not again flow out of proteins, was unaffected by Temin's findings.

Periodical:

Nature

Publisher:

Nature Publishing Group

Rights:

Reproduced with permission of the Nature Publishing Group. and http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html

Genre:

Articles

Format:

Text

Extent:

3 pages

Language:

English

Legacy Source Citation:

Periodical. Crick, Francis. "Central Dogma of Molecular Biology." Nature 227, (8 August 1970): 561-563. Article. 3 Images.. Nature

Legacy ID:

SCBCCH

NLM ID:

101584582X430

Profiles Collection:

The Francis Crick Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584582X430

Story Section:

Embryology and the Organization of DNA in Higher Organisms, 1966-1976