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New evolutionary insights into the non‐enzymatic origin of RNA oligomers
Author(s) -
Šponer Judit E.,
Šponer Jiří,
Mauro Ernesto Di
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
wiley interdisciplinary reviews: rna
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.225
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1757-7012
pISSN - 1757-7004
DOI - 10.1002/wrna.1400
Subject(s) - rna , oligonucleotide , guanosine , nucleotide , ribonucleoprotein , abiogenesis , rna world hypothesis , computational biology , ligase ribozyme , biology , enzyme , polymerization , chemistry , biochemistry , genetics , ribozyme , gene , polymer , organic chemistry
We outline novel findings on the non‐enzymatic polymerization of nucleotides under plausible prebiotic conditions and on the spontaneous onset of informational complexity in the founding molecule, RNA . We argue that the unique ability of 3′, 5′ cyclic guanosine monophosphate to form stacked architectures and polymerize in a self‐sustained manner suggests that this molecule may serve as the ‘seed of life’ from which all self‐replicating oligonucleotides can be derived via a logically complete sequence of simple events. WIREs RNA 2017, 8:e1400. doi: 10.1002/wrna.1400 This article is categorized under: RNA Evolution and Genomics > RNA and Ribonucleoprotein Evolution