Biological genesis: the first step from dead matter to life. A contribution to the nature of DNA, RNA, and the genetic code

Friedrich H Schmidt Retired, Schramberg, Germany Abstract: Information is understood semantically in the special case of the genetic code as the contents of news-bearing and genetically acting molecules. The connection of single molecules to groups and molecule chains can be referred to as syntactic. Well-defined information is not only exchanged between molecules in biology like nucleic and amino acids cooperating in the genetic code: the topic of this article is that an exchange of information could also occur between inorganic and organic substances, eg, mineral crystals interacting with organic molecules. This may have played a role in the origins of life on earth. As the origin of the genetic code and the mechanism of its translation is still an unresolved problem, so is the interaction of inorganic substances and organic substances still an open question. Stereochemical similarities existing between code and amino acids cannot explain the relationship completely and are not present between inorganic and organic molecules at all. Symmetry is a structural entity in organic chemistry and organisms, and Δ-values calculated by a mathematical algorithm and introduced in this article give an estimate of symmetry and transferred information. Symmetric Δ-values exist in minerals as well as in genetic molecules, and could thus bring dead material to life before DNA, RNA, and enzymes were developed. The fact that symmetry is important as a quality of organic matter with the function of the genetic code is pointed out in the works of other authors, who are cited in this paper. Keywords: genetic information, genetic code, symmetry in inorganic and organic molecules, calculation of Δ-values