Which way to life?

Abstract

If the emergence of life is seen as the evolutionary transition between the non-living and the living, then it may be meaningless to draw a strict line between these two worlds. A comparison between the metabolic- and genetic-first origin-of-life proposals is made. A comparison of the empirical evidence used in favor of the metabolic-first and genetic-first theories of the origin of life shows that many of the observations and experimental findings that are used to argue in favor of one or another view are equally consistent with the premises of both theories and do not unambiguously support neither of them. However, current biology indicates that life could not have evolved in the absence of a genetic replicating mechanism insuring the stability and diversification of its basic components.