Ribotype theory

In 1981 I proposed the first model of postchemical evolution with the ribotype theory on the origin of life, and with the concept of ribotype, a term that indicates all RNAs and ribonucleoproteins of any organic system (Barbieri, 1981). Since ribonucleoproteins are advanced compounds, the name rihosoids was introduced to indicate all molecules made of RNA, or RNA and peptides, and the ribotype was also defined as the collective of all rihosoids of an organic system. 

This then is the solution of the ribotype theory in order to avoid the error catastrophes in the journey toward exact replication, it was necessary to have high molecular weight protoribosomes, and the production of these ribosomes for an indefinite number of generations was possible, before exact replication, because ribosoids could achieve it with processes of self-assembly and quasi-replication. The development of high-molecular-weight protoribosomes took place during postchemical evolution, simply because all necessary conditions existed in that period, and the development could be realised with processes that were both natural and primitive. 

The 1981 paper, furthermore, pointed out that the ribotype is not only independent from genotype and phenotype, but has a logical and a historical priority over them. According to the ribotype theory,... 

In 1981, the Journal of Theoretical Biology published The ribotype theory on the origin of life , a paper which proposed two novel ideas ... 

Barbieri, M. 1981. The ribotype theory of the origin of life. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 91,545-601. 

The origin-of-life scenario was instrumental for the new theory of the cell, because it led to the the conclusion that the ribotype had an evolutionary priority over genotype and phenotype. More precisely, the scenario described a precellular ribotype world (not to be confused with the RNA world) where some ribosoids could act as templates (ribogenotype), others as enzymes (ribophenotype), and others as polymerising ribosoids (ribotype) that were responsible for the growth and the quasi-replication of the ribonucleoprotein systems. 

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