The principal statement of the molecular basis of gene action. Genetic information is stored in and transmitted as DNA. Genes are expressed by being copied as RNA ( transcription), which is processed into mrna (messenger RNA) via splicing and polyadenylation. The information in mrna is translated into a protein sequence using a genetic code to interpret three-base codons as instructions to add one of twenty amino acids, or to stop translation; or more simply put, DNA carries the genetic information which is transcribed to RNA and subsequently translated to protein. Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, coined the term "Central Dogma" in 1958 to characterize the all-important cellular processes whereby DNA is "transcribed" into RNA and RNA is "translated" into protein.