The flow of information when a gene directs the synthesis of a cellular component is best depicted as: DNA → RNA → Protein This pathway is known as the central dogma of molecular biology. It involves two major steps: transcription and translation. In transcription, the DNA sequence of a gene is copied into messenger RNA (mRNA). In translation, the mRNA sequence is used by ribosomes to assemble amino acids into a protein, which is the functional cellular component directed by the gene.