"Proteins don't replicate themselves but are created inside a cell's complex molecular machine called a ribosome, based on instructions carried by RNA. That leads to a chicken-and-egg problem: cells wouldn't exist without proteins, but proteins are created inside cells. Now we've gotten a glimpse at how proteins could form before these biological factories existed, snapping a major puzzle piece into place."
""We have achieved the first part of that complex process, using very simple chemistry in water at neutral pH to link amino acids to RNA," said study coauthor Matthew Powner, a chemist at University College London, in a statement about the work. "The chemistry is spontaneous, selective, and could have occurred on early Earth." The results, he added, show how "RNA might have first come to control protein synthesis.""
RNA molecules and amino acids can combine through spontaneous, selective chemistry in neutral water to link amino acids to RNA. Such linkages could enable protein formation before the existence of ribosomes, resolving the apparent chicken-and-egg problem between proteins and cells. Reactive pantetheine compounds, known metabolic components likely abundant in early-Earth lakes, can facilitate amino acid attachment. Amino acids and nucleotides were present in extraterrestrial samples, indicating prebiotic availability. The described chemistry is simple, operates at neutral pH, and plausibly occurred on early Earth, offering a route by which RNA could begin to control early protein synthesis.
Read at Futurism
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]