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How life could have arisen on an ‘RNA world’
New evidence suggests RNA and peptides may have helped build each other on early Earth
11 MAY 2022 -
Current Event, News Release on Cutting Edge Scientific Research
It’s the ultimate chicken-and-egg conundrum. Life doesn’t work without tiny molecular machines called ribosomes, whose job is to translate genes into proteins. But ribosomes themselves are made of proteins. So how did the first life arise?
Researchers may have taken the first step toward solving this mystery. They’ve shown that RNA molecules can grow short proteins called peptides all by themselves—no ribosome required. What’s more, this chemistry works under conditions likely present on early Earth.
“It’s an important advance,” says Claudia Bonfio, an origin of life chemist at the University of Strasbourg who was not involved in the work. The study, she says, provides scientists a new way of thinking about how peptides were built.
Researchers who study the origin of life have long considered RNA the central player because it can both carry genetic information and catalyze necessary chemical reactions. It was likely present on our planet before life evolved. But to give rise to modern life, RNA would have had to somehow “learn” to make proteins, and eventually ribosomes. “At the moment, the ribosome simply falls from the heavens,” says Thomas Carell, a chemist at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
https://www.science.org/content/art...e chicken-and,themselves are made of proteins.
