ReviewJournal of molecular evolution2015
The ribosome challenge to the RNA world.
Review in Journal of molecular evolution, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers.
What it found
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed.
- RNA and proteins joined up at the Origins of Life: Persistence is the point.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Evolution from Composome to RNA Replicase.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Selection for Molecularly Complementary Modules (MCMs) Drives the Origins and Evolution of Pleiofunctional, Epistatic Interactomes (PEIs).Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Discovering, Integrating, and Reinterpreting the Molecular Logic of Life: From Classical Theories of Heredity to an Extended Functional Perspective on the Central Dogma.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- A new LUCApedia database for data-driven research on early evolutionary history.Bioinformatics advances · 2026Article
- The Origin of Life and Cellular Systems: A Continuum from Prebiotic Chemistry to Biodiversity.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Science of the gaps.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Purine Chemistry in the Early RNA World at the Origins of Life: From RNA and Nucleobases Lesions to Current Key Metabolic Routes.Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology · 2025Review
- Biological Polymers: Evolution, Function, and Significance.Accounts of chemical research · 2025Article
- Origin of the RNA World in Cold Hadean Geothermal Fields Enriched in Zinc and Potassium: Abiogenesis as a Positive Fallout from the Moon-Forming Impact?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Intellectual frameworks to understand complex biochemical systems at the origin of life.Nature chemistry · 2025Article
- Review
- Three Biopolymers and Origin of Life Scenarios.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Costs of ribosomal RNA stabilization affect ribosome composition at maximum growth rate.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Which came first: the chicken, the egg, or guanine?RNA (New York, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Biological Catalysis and Information Storage Have Relied onBiomolecules · 2023Review
- Article
- Prebiotic Assembly of Cloverleaf tRNA, Its Aminoacylation and the Origin of Coding, Inferred from Acceptor Stem Coding-Triplets.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Trinity of G-tetrads and origin of translation.Biology direct · 2022Article
- The Bootstrap Model of Prebiotic Networks of Proteins and Nucleic Acids.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
An RNA World that predated the modern world of polypeptide and polynucleotide is one of the most widely accepted models in origin of life research. In this model, the translation system shepherded the RNA World into the extant biology of DNA, RNA, and protein. Here, we examine the RNA World Hypothesis in the context of increasingly detailed information available about the origins, evolution, functions, and mechanisms of the translation system. We conclude that the translation system presents critical challenges to RNA World Hypotheses. Firstly, a timeline of the RNA World is problematic when the ribosome is incorporated. The mechanism of peptidyl transfer of the ribosome appears distinct from evolved enzymes, signaling origins in a chemical rather than biological milieu. Secondly, we have no evidence that the basic biochemical toolset of life is subject to substantive change by Darwinian evolution, as required for the transition from the RNA world to extant biology. Thirdly, we do not see specific evidence for biological takeover of ribozyme function by protein enzymes. Finally, we can find no basis for preservation of the ribosome as ribozyme or the universality of translation, if it were the case that other information transducing ribozymes, such as ribozyme polymerases, were replaced by protein analogs and erased from the phylogenetic record. We suggest that an updated model of the RNA World should address the current state of knowledge of the translation system.
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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.