RNA Rings in the Origin of Life
Year: 2003
Type: report
Abstract: We revisit some ideas proposed earlier by Jacques Demongeot on the origin of life; simulations, combinatorial searches, analysis of tRNA sequences and some additional biological criteria are presented, providing important support for his theory. Starting with some assumptions on the conditions of prebiotic chemistry in primitive Earth, we show – trough simulations – that some particular RNA structures (in particular, some short RNA rings) were more likely to appear and survive. The precise requirements on these sequences lead to an exhaustive combinatorial search of all the possible rings; some additional stability requirements allow the selection of a small number of sequences, and a cluster analysis of them yields a single ring, named the AL ring (for archetypical loop), as the most likely winner of the prebiotic game. When the whole list of rings is aligned with a database of tRNAs existing in current organisms, the AL ring turns out to be the one that best matches the free (loop) parts of tRNA, which are believed to be the oldest molecular fossils and are likely to be traces of the first living molecules. Thus we find a possible “missing link” between prebiotic chemistry and the most essential molecules of current organisms. An additional product of the combinatorics is a possible reason for the selection of the start codon and the modern form of genes. This report corresponds to the third section of the Ph.D. thesis on “Particulas y agentes simples en automatas celulares y otros sistemas discretos’ presented by the author in the Department of Mathematical Engineering of the Universidad de Chile, in August of 2003, under the advice of Dr. Eric Goles and with the collaboration (for this section) of Dr. Demongeot.
Author: Moreira, A
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2790505254