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

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.