An Overview of the Introns-First Theory | Semantic Scholar

It is argued that evolution of the early ribosome requires Darwinian evolution, and that, while chemical evolution could give rise to peptidyl transferase activity, it is insufficient for subsequent improvement of a proto-PTC, or for ongoing coevolution of the proto- PTC with its early non-templated peptide products.

Ribosomal protein synthesis (RPS) evolved from coupled replication by using tRNAs and separating fidelity checking and peptide bond formation functions into small and large ribosomal subunits through the simple triplet-coded process into RPS.

The finding that RNA can be catalytic, and thus possess both a genotype and a phenotype, has forced us to consider the possibility that life's origins began with RNA, and that the subsequent diversification of life is aptly described as a string of innovations by RNA to adapt to a changing environment.

Findings in support of the DNA repair hypothesis that provides a global mechanistic scenario for intron creation are reviewed, which posit that DNA repair processes are a major source of intron formation.