  The central dogma of molecular biology, formulated more than five decades
ago, compartmentalized information exchange in the cell into the DNA, RNA and
protein domains. This formalization has served as an implicit thematic
distinguisher for cell biological research ever since. However, a clear account
of the distribution of research across this formalization over time does not
exist. Abstracts of >3.5 million publications focusing on the cell from 1975 to
2011 were analyzed for the frequency of 100 single-word DNA-, RNA- and
protein-centric search terms and amalgamated to produce domain- and
subdomain-specific trends. A preponderance of protein- over DNA- and in turn
over RNA-centric terms as a percentage of the total word count is evident until
the early 1990s, at which point the trends for protein and DNA begin to
coalesce while RNA percentages remain relatively unchanged. This term-based
census provides a yearly snapshot of the distribution of research interests
across the three domains of the central dogma of molecular biology. A frequency
chart of the most dominantly-studied elements of the periodic table is provided
as an addendum.
