Crick's notion of genetic information and the ‘central dogma’ of molecular biology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8398382 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Predrag Šustar (0000-0002-6375-2424, University of Rijeka, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 13-24 |
| Publication date | 2007-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-0882 • E-ISSN: 1464-3537 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/bjps/axl018 |
| OpenAlex | W2000725063 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 21 |
An assessment is offered of the recent debate on information in the philosophy of biology, and an analysis is provided of the notion of information as applied in scientific practice in molecular genetics. In particular, this paper deals with the dependence of basic generalizations of molecular biology, above all the ‘central dogma’, on the so-called ‘informational talk’ (Maynard Smith [2000a]). It is argued that talk of information in the ‘central dogma’ can be reduced to causal claims. In that respect, the primary aim of the paper is to consider a solution to the major difficulty of the causal interpretation of genetic information: how to distinguish the privileged causal role assigned to nucleic acids, DNA in particular, in the processes of replication and protein production. A close reading is proposed of Francis H. C. Crick's On Protein Synthesis (1958) and related works, to which we owe the first explicit definition of information within the scientific practice of molecular biology. 1. Introduction1.1. The basic questions of the information debate1.2. The causal interpretation (CI) of biological information and Crick's ‘central dogma’2. Crick's definitions of genetic information3. The main requirement for (CI)4. Types of causation in molecular biology4.1. Structural causation in molecular biology4.2. Nucleic acids as correlative causal factors5. The ‘central dogma’ without the notion of information6. Concluding remarks
Biology · Causality (physics) · Causation · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy) · Philosophy of science · Physics · Reading (process) · Gene Regulatory Network Analysis · Origins and Evolution of Life · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science
Regulating Information in Molecules
The Challenge of Changing a Genetics Deterministic Teaching Tradition – Teachers' Views on Including Epigenetics in the Genetics Curriculum
Biological Codes and Topological Causation
What’s all the fuss about? The inheritance of acquired traits is compatible with the Central Dogma
The representation, quantification, and nature of genetic information
Beyond descriptive accuracy
Biological Information as Choice and Construction
Genetic Coding’ Reconsidered
The Philosophy and History of Molecular Biology
Biology without information
Information in Genetics and Developmental Biology
The “Genetic Program” Program
Information, Arbitrariness, and Selection
Information and Structure in Molecular Biology
The Prion Challenge to the `Central Dogma' of Molecular Biology, 1965–1991
The Prion Challenge to the `Central Dogma' of Molecular Biology, 1965–1991
The Concept of Information in Biology
Genetic Information
Explanatory Symmetries, Preformation, and Developmental Systems Theory
On the Theoretical Role of “Genetic Coding”
Reply to Commentaries
Information
What is the Developmentalist Challenge
| Citations per year | 0.44 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2008 - 2025 (18) |
| Highly cited | No |