What is the central dogma of molecular biology?

• A. Information flows from DNA to RNA to protein via transcription and translation.
• B. Protein to RNA to DNA.
• C. RNA to DNA to protein.
• D. DNA to protein to RNA.

Answer: (A)

The main idea is how genetic information moves to make proteins. In most cells, DNA serves as the template for making RNA through transcription, and this RNA is then used to build proteins through translation. This flow—DNA to RNA to protein—captures the normal path of gene expression, with transcription and translation as the two key steps. The statement matches this pattern exactly.

Some notes to place this in context: DNA holds the genetic code, RNA carries the information out of the nucleus (in eukaryotes) to the ribosome, where ribosomes read the RNA in codons and assemble the corresponding amino acids into a polypeptide. The other possible sequences would imply reverse or alternate flows that don’t describe the usual path. There are exceptions in specific viruses (like reverse transcription in retroviruses), but those are special cases and not the standard direction of information flow.