There is solid ground for the assumption that life is a function from the
interaction of predominantly proteins and nucleic acids. Such an
understanding of life can be accepted as the most plausible. The question
is \u2014 how has it been organized and how has it functioned during the period
of the pre-cell evolution? The multitude of unknown circumstances of that
period have \u201cfavoured\u201d the generation of differing opinions and hypotheses
that have on their part produced serious discussions.
Some authors tend to give advantage to proteins, others \u2014 to nucleic
acids. The dispute on that problem has become so \u201cheated\u201d that scientists
like Oparin and Eigen refer to it as one devoid of sense just like \u201cthe hen
and the egg\u201d argument.
In his book \u201cSelf-Organization of Matter and Evolution of the Biological
Macromoleculs\u201d Manfred Eigen (1973) has written: \u201cThe astounding
discoveries of molecular biology have led to the situation that the above-mentioned
problem is often formulated in this way: which has arisen earlier
\u2014 proteins or DNA? The modern variation of the old problem of \u201cthe hen
and the egg\u201d. In this form this problem if related to the complex
relationships of proteins and nucleic acids in modern living cells is incorrect
and leads to an absurd, because there cannot exist an organized \u201cfunction\u201d
if there is no \u201cinformation\u201d and this \u201cinformation\u201d makes only sense through
the \u201cfunction\u201d it encodes\u201d. Further on the author supports his speculations
by a scheme of the contemporary biosynthetic cycle of the proteins, in
which nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) by the help of ribosomes and enzymes
code for and build polypeptide chains. This scheme will be considered in
Section 2. 7 (Proteins).
In my opinion the dispute itself is not absurd or devoid of sense but it is
the way the question is put. The hen and the egg are two phases of the life
cycle of one and the same higher organism that has emerged at a much later
stage of the evolution of living organisms as is the case with the silkworm for
example, where the phases are four \u2014 butterfly, egg, caterpillar and pupa. In
the case of the proteins and nucleic acids we are facing the decipherment of
a long abiogenic evolutionary process that has taken place in the conditions
of a prebiotic atmosphere and hydrosphere in the absence of the complex
biological mechanisms of replications, translation and synthesis of
polypeptide chains. The shedding of light on the question of how and in what
succession the first high-molecular organic compounds have arisen thus
enabling the build-up of the living organisms is of particular importance for the
disclosure of the \u201csecrets\u201d of life organization.
That is why the problem of which exactly organic substances (proteins
or nucleic acids) have been the first precursors of life is allotted such a
serious attention. What F. Engels has said that \u201clife is mode of existence of
protein bodies\u201d is not a phrase deprived of sense and is especially true for
the initial stages of life generation. It is widely acknowledged that proteins
form the skeleton of all structures making up the living organisms and as
enzymes they participate in the course of almost all vital processes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is solid ground for the assumption that life is a function from theinteraction of predominantly proteins and nucleic acids. Such anunderstanding of life can be accepted as the most plausible. The questionis \u2014 how has it been organized and how has it functioned during the periodof the pre-cell evolution? The multitude of unknown circumstances […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cellandcelldivision.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cellandcelldivision.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cellandcelldivision.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cellandcelldivision.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cellandcelldivision.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cellandcelldivision.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447,"href":"https:\/\/cellandcelldivision.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cellandcelldivision.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cellandcelldivision.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cellandcelldivision.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}