The Way of the Array

摘要

The culinary arts and the central dogma of molecular biology have a lot in common. If the DNA is the cookbook and the mRNA is the copied-out recipe, then proteins are the final presentation of the dish. Anybody who has choked down a well-intentioned but poorly executed meal knows that a recipe can have many possible outcomes; a skilled cook knows where to tweak the instructions and add the appropriate seasonings. Similarly, the cellular "chef" often embellishes a protein's basic amino acid ingredients with posttranslational modifications, but there's no way to divine these changes by looking at the DNA or RNA recipe alone.