I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Psalm 139:14
produced few adverse outcomes in terms of functional proteins. This represents an error-minimization strategy. Woese admitted that the error-minimization scheme involved innumerable “trials and errors” so that it, in his opinion, “could never have evolved in this way”.
...One investigation of the theoretical susceptibility of a million randomly generated codes to errors, through mutations, showed that the standard genetic code was among the least prone to error. This indicated that, if the initial genetic code was primitive and error prone, then what is observed in nature is the best option. However, the question remains as to why only one single code survived. Why not several different ones?
Vetsigian and Woese subsequently proposed that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) could possibly spread workable genetic workable codes across organisms, accounting for the near universality of the genetic code. However, HGT requires that the genetic codes of the host and the recipient species be similar enough for the new genetic code to work. There also needs to be evidence for a mechanism permitting transfer of genetic information in the ancient past.
The theory naturally cannot carry much weight, since if the translation machinery is so error-prone to begin with, no meaningful proteins can come from such a configuration. Errors only lead to more errors, not higher precision, which requires intelligent input. From a thermodynamic viewpoint, disorder only increases as mutations accrue." CMI
The error-minimization or adaptation theory
According to Sonneborn’s argument reviewed by Carl Woese, selection pressure acted on a primitive genetic code that led to the generation of a mature genetic code where mutations in codons
...One investigation of the theoretical susceptibility of a million randomly generated codes to errors, through mutations, showed that the standard genetic code was among the least prone to error. This indicated that, if the initial genetic code was primitive and error prone, then what is observed in nature is the best option. However, the question remains as to why only one single code survived. Why not several different ones?
Vetsigian and Woese subsequently proposed that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) could possibly spread workable genetic workable codes across organisms, accounting for the near universality of the genetic code. However, HGT requires that the genetic codes of the host and the recipient species be similar enough for the new genetic code to work. There also needs to be evidence for a mechanism permitting transfer of genetic information in the ancient past.
The theory naturally cannot carry much weight, since if the translation machinery is so error-prone to begin with, no meaningful proteins can come from such a configuration. Errors only lead to more errors, not higher precision, which requires intelligent input. From a thermodynamic viewpoint, disorder only increases as mutations accrue." CMI
