Origin, Persistence and Biological Activity of Genetic Material in Prebiotic Habitats

Molecules which store genetic information (i.e. RNA and DNA) are central to all life on Earth. The formation of these complex molecules, and ultimately life, required specific conditions, including the synthesis and concentration of precursors (nucleotides), the joining of these monomers into larger molecules (polynucleotides), their protection in critical conditions (like those probably existing in primeval habitats), and the expression of the biological potential of the informational molecule (its capacity to multiply and evolve). Determining how these steps occurred and how the earliest genetic molecules originated on Earth is a problem that is far from being resolved. Recent observations on the polymerization of nucleotides on clay surfaces and on the resistance of clay-adsorbed nucleic acids to environmental degradation suggest that clay minerals could have acted as a resting place for the formation and preservation of prebiotic genetic molecules, whatever they were, and for the self-organization of the first auto-replicating systems. In the present work, the molecular characteristics and biological activity of different nucleic acids (DNA, RNAs) adsorbed/bound on clay minerals are discussed in the light of their possible role in ancestral environments.