New Perspectives on Reverse Translation: Brief History and Updates

Abstract

Since the 1950s, reverse translation has been an enigmatic part of Crick’s central dogma of molecular biology. It might be described as the possibility to back-translate information from proteins to nucleic acids (or codons). A few studies have attempted to theorize and/or conduct in vitro experiments to test the likelihood of reverse translation, with ideas often involving the creation of peptide recognition sites that bridge the peptide and the codon. However, due to many constraints including an asymmetrical informational transfer, the stability of protein-peptide bonds, the structural non-uniformity of protein R-groups, and the informational loss in post-translational protein modifications, this concept requires follow-up studies. On the other hand, current bioinformatic tools that rely on computational programs and biological databases represent a growing branch of biology. Bioinformatics-based reverse translation can utilize codon usage tables to predict codons from their peptide counterparts. In addition, the development of machine learning tools may allow for the exploration of biological reverse translation in vitro. Thus, while in vivo reverse translation appears to be nearly impossible (due to biological complexity), related biological and bioinformatics studies might be useful to understand better the central dogma’s informational transfer and to develop more complex biological machinery.

Keywords

• amino acids;
• central dogma;
• genetic transfer;
• polypeptide;
• rna.