Central dogma

Central dogma is the fundamental principle in molecular biology that genetic information flows in one direction: from DNA to RNA to protein.

DNA is transcribed into RNA, which is then translated into protein.

The term was coined by Francis Crick in 1958.

The central dogma explains why you can't inherit acquired traits—information doesn't flow backward from proteins to genes.

Some exceptions exist, like retroviruses that reverse-transcribe RNA into DNA, but the core principle—that proteins cannot encode genetic information back into nucleic acids—remains intact.