Genomes, Proteomes, and the Central Dogma

Systems biology, with its associated technologies of proteomics, genomics, and metabolomics, is driving the evolution of our understanding of cardiovascular physiology. Rather than studying individual molecules or even single reactions, a systems approach allows integration of orthogonal data sets from distinct tiers of biological data, including gene, RNA, protein, metabolite, and other component networks. Together these networks give rise to emergent properties of cellular function, and it is their reprogramming that causes disease. We present 5 observations regarding how systems biology is guiding a revisiting of the central dogma: (1) It deemphasizes the unidirectional flow of information from genes to proteins; (2) it reveals the role of modules of molecules as opposed to individual proteins acting in isolation; (3) it enables discovery of novel emergent properties; (4) it demonstrates the importance of networks in biology; and (5) it adds new dimensionality to the study of biological systems.