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Molecules that combine elements of RNA and DNA, so-called chimeric molecules, may have been an important step in the emergence of life on Earth from the primordial soup that existed billions of years ago, according to a study published yesterday (September 16) in Nature Chemistry.
The work, reported by Scripps Research Institute chemist Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy and his postdoc Subhendu Bhowmik, came out of research exploring the transition from RNA-based lifeforms—commonly thought to be the first life on the planet—to the DNA-based life that is ubiquitous today. In making chimeric RNA-DNA molecules, Krishnamurthy and colleagues previously found that they have some advantages that might make them better candidates than pure RNA for the first reproducing molecules.
“There are times when we have mixtures, rather than just the isolated reactants that people typically use, and we get better results,” Nicholas Hud, a chemist at Georgia Tech who collaborated ...
