Of arrows and flows. Causality, determination, and specificity in the Central Dogma of molecular biology.
From its first proposal, the Central Dogma had a graphical form, complete with arrows of different types, and this form quickly became its standard presentation. In different scientific contexts, arrows have different meanings and in this particular case the arrows indicated the flow of information among different macromolecules. A deeper analysis illustrates that the arrows also imply a causal statement, directly connected to the causal role of genetic information. The author suggests a distinction between two different kinds of causal links, defined as 'physical causality' and 'biological determination', both implied in the production of biological specificity.
Fantini
Bernardino
B
Institute for the History of Medicine and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.
D015984:Causality; D019295:Computational Biology; D015509:Developmental Biology; D034462:Dissent and Disputes; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D005815:Genetic Code; D005827:Genetics, Microbial; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008967:Molecular Biology; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis