THE CENTRAL DOGMA OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Summarize by Dela Destiani Aji

115170012

A gene is the basic physical and functional unit of heredity. Genes, which are made up
of DNA, act as instructions to make molecules called proteins. In humans, genes vary in size
from a few hundred DNA bases to more than 2 million bases. The Human Genome Project has
estimated that humans have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes. Every person has two copies of
each gene, one inherited from each parent. Most genes are the same in all people, but a small
number of genes (less than 1 percent of the total) are slightly different between people. Alleles
are forms of the same gene with small differences in their sequence of DNA bases. These small
differences contribute to each person’s unique physical features.1
Genes are composed of DNA and are linearly arranged on chromosomes. DNA is made
of chemical building blocks called nucleotides. DNA consists of two long polymer strands, each of
which is made up of a series of nucleotides linked together, that form a double helix. Nucleotides have
three components: (1) the sugar deoxyribose, (2) a phosphate group (PO4), and (3) one of four
different nitrogenous bases (i.e., adenine, guanine, cytosine, or thymine). The nucleotides on a DNA
strand are connected to each other by covalent bonds between the 3′ hydroxyl group of one sugar
molecule and the 5′ phosphate group of the next. Strands of DNA differ from one another only in
terms of the order of bases they carry (i.e., their sequence), which are abbreviated as A, G, C, and T,
respectively. The order, or sequence, of these bases determines what biological instructions are
contained in a strand of DNA. For example, the sequence ATCGTT might instruct for blue
eyes, while ATCGCT might instruct for brown.2,3

Since the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900, the definition of the gene has
progressed from an abstract unit of heredity to a tangible molecular entity capable of
replication, transcription, translation, and mutation. That is the three main processes used by
all cells to maintain their genetic information and to convert the genetic information encoded
in DNA into gene products, which are either RNAs or proteins, depending on the gene. In
eukaryotic cells, or those cells that have a nucleus, replication and transcription take place
within the nucleus while translation takes place outside of the nucleus in cytoplasm. In
prokaryotic cells, or those cells that do not have a nucleus, all three processes occur in the
cytoplasm.4
 The Central Dogma is the process by which the instructions in DNA are converted into
a functional product. It was first proposed in 1958 by Francis Crick, discoverer of the structure
of DNA. It’s a theory in genetics and molecular biology subject to several exceptions that
genetic information is coded in self-replicating DNA and undergoes unidirectional transfer to
messenger RNAs in transcription which act as templates for protein synthesis in translation.
The Central Dogma of molecular biology describes the flow of genetic information in cells
from DNA to messenger RNA (mRNA) to protein. It states that genes specify the sequence of
mRNA molecules, which in turn specify the sequence of proteins. Because the information
stored in DNA is so central to cellular function, the cell keeps the DNA protected and copies it
in the form of RNA. An enzyme adds one nucleotide to the mRNA strand for every nucleotide
it reads in the DNA strand. The translation of this information to a protein is more complex
because three mRNA nucleotides correspond to one amino acid in the polypeptide sequence.4
 Figure 1. Central dogma of genetics. DNA is transcribed into RNA, which is
subsequently translated into protein. D = aspartic acid; H = histidine; I = isoleucine; M =
methionine; S = serine; V = valine.

RNA has the same structure as DNA with a few exceptions. While DNA is a double
helix, mRNA is always single stranded. This difference is due to the fact that, at any given
time, only one of the two strands of DNA serves as a template; the other is the nontemplate
strand, which represents the sequence of the gene. The beginning of each strand of DNA has a
free phosphate group attached to the 5′ carbon of the sugar and the end has a free hydroxyl
group attached to the 3′ carbon. The 5′ end of one strand of the double helix is paired with the
3′ end of the other. The two strands are said to be antiparallel. By convention, genes begin at
the 5′ end and finish at the 3′ end. mRNA has the same 5′–3′ orientation. There are, however,
two other differences between DNA and RNA. The sugar in RNA is ribose, not deoxyribose.
And uracil (U) replaces thymine in RNA. For any given gene, where T is present in DNA, it
will appear as U in mRNA.3

DNA contains the complete genetic information that defines the structure and function
of an organism. Proteins are formed using the genetic code of the DNA. Three different
processes are responsible for the inheritance of genetic information and for its conversion from
one form to another :

1. Replication
Replication is the basis for biological inheritance. It copies a cell’s DNA. The
enzyme DNA polymerase copies a single parental double-stranded DNA molecule
into two daughter double-stranded DNA molecules. 4
2. Transcription
Transcription is the process of creating a complementary RNA copy of a
sequence of DNA. Both RNA and DNA are nucleic acids, which use base pairs of
nucleotides as a complementary language that enzymes can convert back and forth
from DNA to RNA. During transcription, a DNA sequence is read by RNA
polymerase, which produces a complementary, antiparallel RNA strand. Unlike
DNA replication, transcription results in an RNA complement that substitutes the
RNA uracil (U) in all instances where the DNA thymine (T) would have occurred.
Transcription is the first step in gene expression. The stretch of DNA transcribed
into an RNA molecule is called a transcript. Some transcripts are used as structural
 or regulatory RNAs, and others encode one or more proteins. If the transcribed gene
encodes a protein, the result of transcription is messenger RNA (mRNA), which
will then be used to create that protein in the process of translation. Other kinds of
RNA:4
 Ribosomal RNA, rRNA, is RNA that becomes part of the ribosome, the big
molecular machine responsible for synthesizing proteins
 Transfer RNA, tRNA, is used to bring correct amino acids to the ribosome
during protein synthesis
 Micro RNAs (mRNAs) are important in regulating gene expression
 Others.
3. Translation
Translation is the process by which mRNA is decoded and translated to produce
a polypeptide sequence, otherwise known as a protein. This method of synthesizing
proteins is directed by the mRNA and accomplished with the help of a ribosome, a
large complex of ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) and proteins. In translation, a cell
decodes the mRNA’s genetic message and assembles the brand-new polypeptide
chain. Transfer RNA, or tRNA, translates the sequence of codons on the mRNA
strand. The main function of tRNA is to transfer a free amino acid from the
cytoplasm to a ribosome, where it is attached to the growing polypeptide chain.
tRNAs continue to add amino acids to the growing end of the polypeptide chain
until they reach a stop codon on the mRNA. The ribosome then releases the
completed protein into the cell.4

The amino acids in a protein are covalently linked together by peptide bonds, which are
formed during the process of translation. The correspondence between the sequence of
nucleotides in mRNA and the sequence of amino acids in a protein is called the genetic code.
Because there are 20 amino acids, each of which is specified by using just four different bases
(i.e., A, G, T, C), scientists determined that the genetic code must be a triplet code. Every three
nucleotides, a grouping that is called a codon in mRNA, represents one and only one amino
acid. So, if the codon is UUU, for example, then the amino acid that will become part of the
protein is phenylalanine. Some amino acids may be specified by more than one codon, which
is a safeguard against mutations. If a mutation occurs, particularly in the third nucleotide of a
codon, the codon may still represent the same amino acid as the original codon, thus it may not
lead to a change in the amino acid sequence of a protein. As all living organisms use the same
genetic code, it is considered universal.

Figure 2. The genetic code. Each nucleotide triplet represents a codon. Each codon represents
an amino acid (e.g, UUU = phenylalanine, UCU = serine, etc.). Three codons (UAA, UAG, and UGA) do
not represent any amino acid. Rather, these are stop sequences that terminate protein synthesis. A =
adenine; C = cytosine; G = guanine; U = uracil.
 REFERENCES

1. US Nasional Library of Medicine. Handbook Help Me Understand Genetics. 2011

2. Travers, A. DNA Structure and Function. MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology,
Cambridge, UK. 2015.

3. Dorman, JS. Primer in Genetics and Genomics (DNA, Genes, and Chromosomes).
2016.
4. UCDAVIS University of California. The Relationship between genes and proteins.
2018.