GIGLIOTOS,ERMANNO - HISTORY AND MYTH IN THE ORIGINS OF MAJOR LIFE-FORMS

Theories on ''first origins'' differ even more than those on evolution on grounds of completeness and of specificity in different features. Giglio-Tos' ''symbiotic'' theory is totally a-specific biochemistry-wise, and deficient on a now obvious empirical point in the evolution of sexual systems. And yet it is still more complete than any other in terms of the hinds of organisms among which it distinguishes and the basic causal relationships being considered - e.g. between cellular specialization and genomic sexual dimorphism, between cellular dynamics and organismal ''topology'' or between ''ecosystem'' evolution and the symbiotic nature of organelles. This theory lends itself to be specified biochemically through theories that also regard coding as a ''late'' specialization of cells, such as Cordon's and de Duve's. Thus a likely follow-up to Cordon's open, non-coded cells is for viruses to have evolved on such cells, and part of these viruses eventually becoming their coders and ''sexual organs''.