Basic Molecular Biology The Central Dogma Alright, we’ve
described the basic players in molecular biology: DNA, RNA, and
proteins. What they do is this: Here’s what’s going on: You have
the Genome which is one or more really big double-stranded DNA
molecule within every cell. Every cell has at least one genomic
DNA. Humans have 23 pairs of them, so a total of 46 giant DNAs
in each cell totaling something like 8 billion base pairs of
DNA. E. coli has just one at around 4 million base pairs.
Through the process of Replication, the genomic DNA can be
copied into another identical molecule (or set of molecules).
When cells divide, each daughter cell gets a copy of the genomic
DNA. Short regions of the genome called genes (typically
1/1000th of the genome’s total length) get Transcribed into RNA
molecules. RNAs then get Translated into protein molecules.
Proteins do all the busy work. The thing that is being preserved
during each of these steps is information. The sequence of DNA
is transcribed base-per-base using