STOCHASTIC THEORY OF ORIGIN OF GENETIC CODE

This review begins with a brief discussion of the genetic code and the translation apparatus of today. This is followed by a somewhat superficial but critical review of the synthesis of protein and nucleic acid under prebiotic conditions. These include additional reasons for favoring a stochastic origin of the genetic code. The rest of the review is devoted to a summary of the theory, which consists of two main parts. The first part deals with the question of how accurate a translation apparatus needs to be in order to survive at all. The second part of the theory describes how a translation apparatus could have nucleated.