Central Dogma: DNA to RNA to Protein

Definition

The Central Dogma describes the flow of genetic information in cells from DNA to messenger RNA (mRNA) to protein.

Analogy

Consider this process like baking a cake. The recipe book (DNA) has all your recipes, but you don't want flour and eggs on it, so you make a copy of it on another paper(mRNA). Then you follow this copied recipe step by step using ingredients(amino acids) until you get your final product - cake(protein).

Related terms

Transcription: This is copying down the recipe from your book onto another paper. In biological terms, it's creating an mRNA strand from DNA.

Translation: This is following your copied recipe step by step using ingredients until you get your final product - cake. In biology, it's synthesizing proteins based on mRNA sequence.

Gene Expression: The overall process by which information from genes is used in synthesis of functional gene products(proteins). Like deciding which cake(recipe) you want to bake.