Theoretical and Natural Science
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Vol. 21, 20 December 2023
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
How life starts from small molecules to RNAs and further to modern life is an unanswered question. Cyanosulfitic chemistry established the synthesis of building blocks, including 12 proteinogenic amino acids, 4 ribo- and deoxyribo-nucleosides, and phospholipids, from hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen sulfite under prebiotically plausible conditions. Later on, the non-enzymatic monomer extension of nucleotides provided a plausible pathway from mononucleotides to RNAs giving rise to the RNA world. RNA is one of the key components for the origin of life, firstly, the sequence information can be heritage by template copying reaction. Secondly, RNA is able to fold into a secondary structure which has the capability to catalyze chemical reactions. The RNA world scenario has perfectly overcome the chicken-egg problem, but it still cannot explain why peptides are involved in modern life. Most recently, with the establishment of the reaction between RNA and peptides, the trajectory to the RNA-peptide world theory has opened up a new era of the origin of life research. Here I will discuss the current results relevant to the RNA world to RNA-peptide world theory.
RNA world, RNA-peptide world, the non-enzymatic replication of nucleotides.
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