ABSTRACT
W. Johannsen’s distinction between genotype and phenotype was seen as a mere division of labour among proteins, not as a duality of material substrates. The supporters of the Phenotype and Genotype theories are confident that some day a suitable mechanism will be found, and this is undoubtedly a legitimate expectation. For the time being therefore the Phenotype and the Genotype theories remain inherently paradoxical. The idea of ‘Precellular Evolution’ is the only conceivable alternative to the idea of ‘Sudden Life’, and in this sense it is one concept. The Viral theory of precellular evolution was first proposed by J. B. S. Haldane in 1929. The first theory of precellular evolution was proposed by Alexander Dounce Oparin in 1924, with the suggestion that primitive cells evolved from coacervates of proteins. The formation of proteins and nucleic acids requires the elimination of a molecule of water from any couple of aminoacids and of nucleotides.
