The roads to and from the RNA world |
| |
Authors: | Dworkin Jason P Lazcano Antonio Miller Stanley L |
| |
Affiliation: | Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, Code 691, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA. jason.dworkin@nasa.gov |
| |
Abstract: | The historical existence of the RNA world, in which early life used RNA for both genetic information and catalytic ability, is widely accepted. However, there has been little discussion of whether protein synthesis arose before DNA or what preceded the RNA world (i.e. the pre-RNA world). We outline arguments of what route life may have taken out of the RNA world: whether DNA or protein followed. Metabolic arguments favor the possibility that RNA genomes preceded the use of DNA as the informational macromolecule. However, the opposite can also be argued based on the enhanced stability, reactivity, and solubility of 2-deoxyribose as compared to ribose. The possibility that DNA may have come before RNA is discussed, although it is a less parsimonious explanation than DNA following RNA. |
| |
Keywords: | Pre-RNA world RNA world Ribose Deoxyribose Prebiotic evolution |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect PubMed 等数据库收录! |
|