The Prebiotic Synthesis and Replication of RNA Oligomers: The Transition from Prebiotic Molecules to the RNA World

The emergence and evolution of prebiotic biomolecules on the early Earth remain a question that is considered crucial to understanding the chemistry of the origin of life. Amongst prebiotic molecules, glycerol is significant due to its ubiquity in biochemistry. In this review, we discuss the significance of glycerol and its various derivatives in biochemistry, their plausible roles in the origin and evolution of early cell membranes, and significance in the biochemistry of extremophiles, followed by their prebiotic origin on the early Earth and associated catalytic processes that led to the origin of these compounds. We also discuss various scenarios for the prebiotic syntheses of glycerol and its derivates and evaluate these to determine their relevance to early Earth biochemistry and geochemistry, and recapitulate the utilization of various minerals (including clays), condensation agents, and solvents that could have led to the successful prebiotic genesis of these biomolecules. Furthermore, important prebiotic events such as meteoritic delivery and prebiotic synthesis reactions under astrophysical conditions are also discussed. Finally, we have also highlighted some novel features of glycerol, including glycerol nucleic acid (GNA), in the origin and evolution of the life.

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The Prebiotic Synthesis of Modified Purines and Their Potential Role in the RNA World

Journal of Molecular Evolution ◽

10.1007/pl00006506 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 48 (6) ◽

pp. 631-637 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Matthew Levy ◽

Stanley L. Miller

Keyword(s):

Potential Role ◽

Rna World ◽

Prebiotic Synthesis

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Alternative bases in the RNA world: The prebiotic synthesis of urazole and its ribosides

Journal of Molecular Evolution ◽

10.1007/bf00175873 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 38 (6) ◽

Cited By ~ 64

Author(s):

V.M. Kolb ◽

J.P. Dworkin ◽

S.L. Miller

Keyword(s):

Rna World ◽

Prebiotic Synthesis

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Selection of Prebiotic Molecules in Amphiphilic Environments

10.20944/preprints201612.0089.v1 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Christian Mayer ◽

Ulrich Schreiber ◽

Maria J. Davila

Keyword(s):

Molecular Evolution ◽

Rna World ◽

Aqueous Environment ◽

Amphiphilic Molecules ◽

Numeric Simulation ◽

Starting Conditions ◽

Hydrophobic Amino Acids ◽

Prebiotic Molecules ◽

Efficient Environment ◽

Selection Of

A basic problem in all postulated pathways of prebiotic chemistry is the low concentration which generally is expected for interesting reactants in fluid environments. Even though compounds like nucleobases, sugars or peptides principally may form spontaneously under environmental conditions, they will always be rapidly diluted in an aqueous environment. In addition, any such reaction leads to side products which often exceed the desired compound and generally hamper the first steps of a subsequent molecular evolution. Therefore, a mechanism of selection and accumulation of relevant prebiotic compounds seems to be crucial for molecular evolution. A very efficient environment for selection and accumulation can be found in the fluid continuum circulating in tectonic fault zones. Vesicles which form spontaneously at a depth of approximately 1 km present a selective trap for amphiphilic molecules, especially for peptides composed of hydrophilic and hydrophobic amino acids in a suitable sequence. The accumulation effect is shown in a numeric simulation on a simplified model. Further, possible mechanisms of a molecular evolution in vesicle membranes are discussed. Altogether, the proposed scenario can be seen as an ideal environment for constant, undisturbed molecular evolution in and on cell-like compartments, the latter offering preferential starting conditions for a subsequent RNA world.

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A model for the emergence of RNA from a prebiotically plausible mixture of ribonucleotides, arabinonucleotides and 2’-deoxynucleotides

10.1101/813675 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Seohyun Chris Kim ◽

Lijun Zhou ◽

Wen Zhang ◽

Derek K. O’Flaherty ◽

Valeria Rondo-Brovetto ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rna Synthesis ◽

Rna World ◽

Random Sequence ◽

Prebiotic Synthesis ◽

Primer Extension ◽

Complex Mixtures ◽

Essential Step ◽

Simultaneous Synthesis ◽

The Difference ◽

Chimeric Oligonucleotides

AbstractThe abiotic synthesis of ribonucleotides is thought to have been an essential step towards the emergence of the RNA world. However, it is likely that the prebiotic synthesis of ribonucleotides was accompanied by the simultaneous synthesis of arabinonucleotides, 2′-deoxyribonucleotides, and other variations on the canonical nucleotides. In order to understand how relatively homogeneous RNA could have emerged from such complex mixtures, we have examined the properties of arabinonucleotides and 2′-deoxyribonucleotides in nonenzymatic template-directed primer extension reactions. We show that nonenzymatic primer extension with activated arabinonucleotides is much less efficient than with activated ribonucleotides, and furthermore that once an arabinonucleotide is incorporated, continued primer extension is strongly inhibited. As previously shown, 2′-deoxyribonucleotides are also less efficiently incorporated in primer extension reactions, but the difference is more modest. Experiments with mixtures of nucleotides suggest that the coexistence of ribo- and arabino-nucleotides does not impede the copying of RNA templates. Moreover, chimeric oligoribonucleotides containing 2′-deoxy- or arabino-nucleotides are effective templates for RNA synthesis. We propose that the initial genetic polymers were random sequence chimeric oligonucleotides formed by untemplated polymerization, but that template copying chemistry favored RNA synthesis; multiple rounds of replication may have led to pools of oligomers composed mainly of RNA.

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