On the origin of the translation system and the genetic code in the RNA world by means of natural selection, exaptation, and subfunctionalization
Abstract Background The origin of the translation system is, arguably, the central and the hardest problem in the study of the origin of life, and one of the hardest in all evolutionary biology.The problem has a clear catch-22 aspect: high translation fidelity hardly can be achieved without a complex, highly evolved set of RNAs and proteins but an