The origin of the modern genetic code and the mechanisms that have contributed to its present form raise many questions. The main goal of this work is to test two hypotheses concerning the development of the genetic code for their compatibility and complementarity and see if they could benefit from each other. On the one hand, Gonzalez, Giannerini and Rosa developed a theory, based on four-based codons, which they called tesserae. This theory can explain the degeneracy of the modern vertebrate mitochondrial code. On the other hand, in the 1990s, so-called circular codes were discovered in nature, which seem to ensure the maintenance of a correct reading-frame during the translation process. It turns out that the two concepts not only do not contradict each other, but on the contrary complement and enrichen each other.
Keywords: Circular code; Degeneracy; Genetic code; Tessera.