Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres

, Volume 44, Issue 4, pp 269–277 | Cite as

Essentials in the Life Process Indicated by the Self-Referential Genetic Code

Origin of Life
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Abstract

The self-referential genetic encoding starts with glycine and serine, in the realm of one-carbon units of metabolism. It is proposed that the prototRNA dimer-directed mechanism of protein synthesis and encoding promotes a sink dynamics that corresponds to the driving ‘force’ for the fixation of the supporting metabolic pathways. A succession of processes is delineated, ending up in reproduction, which accomplished the function of reinforcing the protein synthesis metabolic sink mechanism.

Keywords

Genetic code Metabolic flow Reproduction Self-reference tRNA dimers Life process 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

I thank Yoshio Oono for the suggestion that the early Gly biosynthesis, at the prebiotic to biotic transition, would have been easier with amination of prebiotic C2 compounds (Huber and Wächtershäuser 1997; Russell and Martin 2004), such as glyoxylate, instead of the complex routes of C1 assimilation, which would have been biotic choices. I thank Steven Benner and Andrew Pohorille for the help in improving the text.

Conflict of Interest

I declare no conflict of interest related to this publication.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Laboratório de Biodiversidade e Evolução Molecular, Departamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciências BiológicasUniversidade Federal de Minas GeraisBelo HorizonteBrazil

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