ON THE CHEMOTON THEORY

The theories on prebiological evolution try to evaluate the events and rules that may bridge the gap between chemical and biological evoluti on. One of these theories is the concept of chemoton. In this article the chemoton theory is overviewed and analyzed in order to assess whet her the concept can be considered as a possible explanation of how the primordial cell emerged. After alignment of pros and cons, it is conc luded that until the uncertainty concerning the introduction of geneti c information is cleared up, the theory cannot be accepted as answerin g the problems of prebiological evolution. However, the chemoton theor y, especially in its advanced forms, can be used in computer simulatio ns of the cell.