An unviable proteinoid was spun
And without a hereditary mechanism there’d be soup today -
So scientists posit a ‘replicator’, a prototype of RNA.
The soup au Gilbert would take the chill off the night
Of frustrated chemical evolution:
Posited as a starter, a smarter RNA - quite
Modern! - catalyses its formation,
Is able to polymerize (and this is the primitive?); is mutant
And recombinant (primal, yet so adaptable and procreant!).¹
Then some early molecules found that synthesizing protein
Gave them a selective advantage,
For protein’s canteens flow with enzymes. So protein
Enzymes became chef’s new language
To be encoded by the RNA exon (forerunner of DNA).
The theory goes, a code then developed, made headway
Till the genome had grown to a myriad nucleotide bases -
Enough to code for replicase!
This enzyme, I’m not error-prone enough to forget, graces
The cellular schism and wins praise
For the twin error-correcting steps that weed out mutation.
Without it (and with 1% error rates) surely the expectation
That big families brought solace to random, hundred-base replicators
Overlooks the statistical certainty
Of boo-boos? And if RNA lengthens, their dissolution nears
And would select for genomes of twenty!
Without replicase, no genome development: without genome development,
No replicase! Yet we slurp our soup, so sure of our descent!