The central dogma of Molecular Genetics is that information flow is unidirectional: DNA to RNA to PROTEIN. That is, DNA holds the blueprints, RNA is the messenger, and Proteins are the constructed functional units of life.
This dogma seems to hold for most of the species on the planet. From bacteria to humans to insects, the central dogma acts as a unifying theory of life’s architecture. But, there are a few key exceptions.
The first is that in some viruses, there is no DNA at all! Instead, they used RNA exclusively for their coding. Among these are the viruses that cause the common cold, flu, polio, and hepatitis. In these, the flow of information is simply: RNA to PROTEIN.
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