An inherited efficiencies model of non-genomic evolution

A model for the evolution of biological systems in the absence of a nucleic acid-like genome is proposed and applied to model the earliest living organisms – protocells composed of membrane encapsulated peptides. Assuming that the peptides can make and break bonds between amino acids, and bonds in non-functional peptides are more likely to be destroyed than in functional peptides, it is demonstrated that the catalytic capabilities of the system as a whole can increase. This increase is defined to be non-genomic evolution. The relationship between the proposed mechanism for evolution and recent experiments on self-replicating peptides is discussed.