The Central Dogma of Biology

[ase]

The central dogma - DNA is transcribed into RNA is translated into protein, this is the flow of information in a cell and that is what will be on the test - is a convenient lie told in high school and freshman biology to simplify the complex:



A few emendations to mess with your head:



In biochem 3 the prof drew the central dogma on the board and proceeded to break it. I don't have the full diagram any more, but I think there was more stuff on it. I'm not going through my entire notebook reconstructing it, but I'm kind of tempted, because it was pretty cool.

I'm way behind my f-list, and may not catch up tonight, or before this weekend, but know that's it's in a good cause: I have vacuumed my room and retyped my class notes. Trip pictures and summary to follow sometime this weekend, maybe? I hear there's a thing on the mall I may want to attend. The very short version: I had a great time, did museum time and outside time, got slightly sunburned twice, saw my sister, and accidentally drove up Russian Hill in the dark. I had an adventure! Now I'm locked into adventures with genetics until the end of the semester.

Comments

[toraks]

Are they still teaching the Central Dogma in high school & freshman bio?

How outdated!

I was lucky(?) enough to learn the Central Dogma around when it still mostly applied (maybe there was some early research casting doubt at that point, but very minor). And then watched avidly and read the original research papers (not all but some of the major ones, and just watched/discussed others) as it was bashed into smithereens.

High school '92, BS in bio w/specialization in genetics & development '96, PhD in '03 -- I think it was post '96 where it really all started going down the drain and I was certainly paying attention during my PhD. Especially since my PhD PI was convinced our gene piwi was involved in RNA interference, which it turned out it was. :-D

Sounds like you're enjoying the genetics, that's great!

Did you manage a meet-up with my friend? Was he any help?

[ase]

Well, for a first-order approximation, the central dogma isn't completely wrong. I whine like a mosquito, but I'm way over-prepared for at least the first half of the course: I took a bunch of genetics and that one biochem course about biological information systems, but also in this class are people who got their undergrad degrees in psych or forensics. For them, this is really useful, and for what we're doing - at least for now - you need to know the core concept that DNA is transcribed to RNA is translated to protein, with epigenetics and mtDNA tacked on as Pandora's box. Apparently we'll be going over the Angelman's Syndrome / Prader-Willi Syndrome epigenetics thing in some detail at some point. (It's actually really cool from a biological perspective, however tragic to the patients, and I can go into detail if you want it.) I am definitely looking forward to the spring semester, which is all clinical studies. And later this semester we'll do multiple cytogenetics lectures, about which I know almost nothing. So that will be fun.

Genetics is awesome. Biology is awesome. I want to do this whole post on how biology now is kind of sort of where physics was in the '20s, and how that led directly to the '40s, and possibly I am romanticizing research way too much? But yes, it turns out I like science. Everyone is shocked, I know. :-)

I did get to meet ZW, and it was really cool and pretty helpful. He seems to like his job, which is always encouraging. :-)

[phoenixsong]

I definitely want to attend the thing on the mall, assuming I do not have to go looking at townhouses for the third weekend in a row. Because Sue Monk Kidd is made of awesome.

[ase]

The book festival was packed, despite the rain. Or perhaps the rain contributed to the packed tents. I hope the townhouse hunt comes to fruition soon! Where are you looking?

[phoenixsong]

Reston-ish. We got a positive response on our last application, but no paperwork to sign yet. *antsy*

[ase]

Reston's out of my network - I hope your application goes through smoothly!