Transfer RNA: The molecular demiurge in the origin of biological systems

Herein, we review recent works on the role that the tRNA molecule played in the early origins of biological systems. tRNAs gave origin to the first genes (mRNA), the peptidyl transferase center (PTC), the 16S ribosomal molecule, proto-tRNAs were at the core of a proto-translation system, and the anticodon and operational codes appeared in tRNAs molecules. Metabolic pathways emerged from evolutionary pressures of the decoding systems. The transitions from the RNA world to the ribonucleoprotein world to modern biological systems were driven by two kinds of tRNAs transitions, to wit, tRNAs leading to both mRNA and rRNA.