Why the Central Dogma: on the nature of the great biological exclusion principle

ABSTRACT: The Central Dogma of molecular biology posits that transfer of information from proteins back to nucleic acids does not occur in biological systems. I argue that the impossibility of reverse translation is indeed a major, physical exclusion principle that emerges due to the transition from the digital information carriers, nucleic acids, to analog information carriers, proteins, which involves irreversible suppression of the digital information. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Itai Yanai, Martin Lercher and Frank Eisenhaber.