ReviewNature reviews. Genetics2015
The RNA World: molecular cooperation at the origins of life.
Review in Nature reviews. Genetics, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 256 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
256 citing papers in PubMed.
- Functional abiotic metabolite assembly hypothesis for the early events in the origin of life.Nature communications · 2026Review
- The role of minerals in prebiotic evolution: Implications for identifying worlds with the potential for life's origin.Fundamental research · 2026Review
- UV photodamage pathways and the evolutionary selection of thymine over uracil in early genetic systems.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Design of Fuel-Dependent, Complex-Coacervate-Based Synthetic Cells.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Exonuclease Ribozyme Encoded in a Circular Genome: On the Initiation of the RNA World.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Parasites constrain within-population diversification while accelerating between-population divergence in an RNA replication system.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Conjugation of hydrophobic drugs to motile pRNA 4WJ nanoparticles for spontaneous tumor targeting and undetectable toxicity.Nature protocols · 2026Review
- Review
- Periodic Temperature Fluctuations as an Energy Source for RNA Evolution.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Hydrodynamic cavitation for prebiotic ribose formation from HNational science review · 2026Article
- The RNA-First Fallacy: Conflating Evolutionary Ancestry with Prebiotic Primacy.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Experimental evolution toward extinction in a molecular host-parasite system.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Compositional memory matters for early molecular systems.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Structural basis of chaperone mechanisms in cells and the evolutionary emergence of the protein world.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Sequence patterns in RNA replication via the virtual circular genome mechanism.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Advanced CRISPR Technologies for RNA Imaging in Live Cells.Chemical & biomedical imaging · 2026Review
- Non-enzymatic error correction in self-replicators without extraneous energy supply.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Abyssal hydrothermal alteration drives the evolution from simple alkanes to prebiotic molecular complexity.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Complex and Messy Prebiotic Chemistry: Obstacles and Opportunities for an RNA World.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Illustration of the variable 1D sequences but conserved 2D and 3D structures of different ncRNA nanostructures for tracking the evolution and origin of organisms.Non-coding RNA research · 2026Article
196 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The RNA World concept posits that there was a period of time in primitive Earth's history - about 4 billion years ago - when the primary living substance was RNA or something chemically similar. In the past 50 years, this idea has gone from speculation to a prevailing idea. In this Review, we summarize the key logic behind the RNA World and describe some of the most important recent advances that have been made to support and expand this logic. We also discuss the ways in which molecular cooperation involving RNAs would facilitate the emergence and early evolution of life. The immediate future of RNA World research should be a very dynamic one.
Indexed as
Identifiers
25385129What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.