Scientists Debate RNA's Role At Beginning Of Life On Earth

Sidebar: RNA's Role at Beginning of Life - For Further Information Before there was life, there were chemicals. The idea that ribonucleic acid (RNA), because of its catalytic capability and multiple roles in protein synthesis, was the chemical that led directly to life is termed the RNA world hypothesis. Although the phrase "RNA world" is generally attributed to Walter Gilbert, Harvard University's Carl M. Loeb University Professor, in a short 1986 paper, the idea of RNA's importance at the beg

Written byRicki Lewis

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Sidebar: RNA's Role at Beginning of Life - For Further Information

MINING FOR RNA: James Ferris's group at Rensselaer re-creates how nucleotides might have joined on ancient mineral surfaces.

The RNA world hypothesis has fueled diverse research approaches, drawing from geology, biochemistry, and evolutionary biology. RNA world studies have been strong and steady for a decade. Researchers are re-creating early Earth conditions, discovering new RNA activities, and uncovering clues to life in the most ancient rocks.

Yet the central role of RNA at life's debut is hardly settled. "The world is divided into those who say it was RNA and those who say no because it is hard to make RNA nucleotides and conditions on the prebiotic Earth were not favorable for that," says Leslie Orgel, senior fellow and research professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego. Orgel-and, independently, Francis Crick at the University of California, ...

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