The central dogma of biology describes the flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA to protein. Originally, it was thought to be a simple linear process from DNA to mRNA to protein. However, it is now understood that there can be reverse transcription from RNA back to DNA, and proteins can influence other proteins through prion diseases. The genetic code is translated from RNA nucleotides in groups of three codons to specify the 20 amino acids used to build proteins.

1. CENTRAL DOGMA
To supplement the guided notes packet

2. The flow of genetic information
from DNA to RNA to protein
Initially, the central dogma of biology was simply thought
of as
DNA  mRNA protein

3. However, that has been
expanded…
Proteins can ‘force’ other
transcription translation proteins to mimic themselves.
Ex: Prion Diseases
DNA RNA Protein Environmen
RNA can be autocatalytic (cut it self up)
Reverse
transcription
Blue words = initial / classic understanding
Orange words = new understandings

4. What do all those nitrogenous
bases mean?
 On the RNA strand,
each bracket contains
3 nucleotides.
 3 nucleotides are
called a codon, each
codon represents an
amino acid.
 There are 64 (43)
possible code words
which is more than
enough to code for
the 20 amino acids

5. Now it’s your turn..
 You should be able to use the notes you took
for homework to complete the questions up
through the elongation stage of translation.
 Remember: There are lots of resources on the
blog to help you!