The Phylogeny of tRNA Sequences Provides Evidence for Ambiguity Reduction in the Origin of the Genetic Code
Abstract
In 1966, Fitch proposed the ambiguity reduction hypothesis of the origin of the genetic code, based on a view that the origin of life was a process in which local (pre)biological order arose from molecular chaos on the earth, driven by the asymmetric energy budget of the earth's atmosphere, a process in which subsets of random biochemical events gradually became the programmed rule of the system. This in turn led to a view, regarding the origin of the genetic code, that suggests that originally there may have been little specificity regarding which amino acids were charged to the various RNA acceptors that paired to the message. Under such conditions, no messenger RNA is likely to produce exactly the same protein twice. The advantages of obtaining a well-defined protein sequence, however, would have gradually reduced the variability in the assignment of amino acids to codons until the current genetic code emerged....
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