The Problem of Evolving a Genetic Code

In a restricted sense, it can be said that the genetic code has been solved. That is to say, we can construct such a table as Table 1, describing the mapping relationship between the primary structure of any gene and that of its corresponding protein. It is apparent, however, that the mere construction of this table in no way constitutes a genuine understanding of the problem of the genetic code. The relationships in the table are formal; they convey nothing about the actual manner in which the mapping, the translation, occurs. Neither have they provided definite clues as to what interactions, principles, etc., might underlie these relationships. Thus the fundamental question that biology still faces is how this particular set of codon assignments and this particular translocation machine came into existence.

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