Journal
ORIGINS OF LIFE AND EVOLUTION OF BIOSPHERES
Volume 37, Issue 4-5, Pages 323-328Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11084-007-9105-2
Keywords
Origin of life; protocell; homochirality; peptide nucleic acid
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The possibilities of pseudo peptide DNA mimics like PNA (peptide nucleic acid) having a role for the prebiotic origin of life prior to an RNA world is discussed. In particular a scenario is proposed in which protocells with an achiral genetic material through several generations stepwise is converted into a chiral genetic material, e. g., by incorporation of RNA units. Provided that a sufficiently large sequence space is occupied, a selection process based on catalytic function in which a single cell (first common ancestor) has a definite evolutionary advantage, selection of this cell would by contingency also lock it into homochirality.
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