Journal
RNA
Volume 15, Issue 5, Pages 743-749Publisher
COLD SPRING HARBOR LAB PRESS, PUBLICATIONS DEPT
DOI: 10.1261/rna.1488609
Keywords
RNA folding; structural motif; modular evolution; RNA ligation; hairpin ribozyme; RNA polymerase
Categories
Funding
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion [BIO2007-67523, FIS2008-05273]
- INTA
- INSA
- EU
- CAM
Ask authors/readers for more resources
A main unsolved problem in the RNA World scenario for the origin of life is how a template-dependent RNA polymerase ribozyme emerged from short RNA oligomers obtained by random polymerization on mineral surfaces. A number of computational studies have shown that the structural repertoire yielded by that process is dominated by topologically simple structures, notably hairpin-like ones. A fraction of these could display RNA ligase activity and catalyze the assembly of larger, eventually functional RNA molecules retaining their previous modular structure: molecular complexity increases but template replication is absent. This allows us to build up a stepwise model of ligation-based, modular evolution that could pave the way to the emergence of a ribozyme with RNA replicase activity, step at which information-driven Darwinian evolution would be triggered.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available