[sterlind]

I wish I recalled better, but I saw a hypothesis that centered around tRNA rather than the ribosome as the origin of replication. after all, the ribosome simply catalyzes the binding of tRNA to mRNA, and amino acid linkage.

iirc the idea centered around the tRNA "code" having a pattern to it - one shaped by its binding affinity to part of the sequence that codes for the tRNA-aminoacyltransferase enzyme itself. I wish I remembered enough to find the reference.

edit: ah! think I remembered. the hypothesis was that the codon sequence had some sort of binding affinity to the amino acid it codes for. that there's a relationship between them, suggesting a world where codons attracted amino acids to bind to them without an enzyme linking them.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7924937/