ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2017
Origin of the RNA world: The fate of nucleobases in warm little ponds.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers.
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70 citing papers in PubMed.
- From searching for extraterrestrial biosignatures to exploring the origins of life: A prebiotic chemistry perspective.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
- Review
- Abiotic synthesis of RNase-resistant phosphodiester and pyrophosphate-linked polymers via thermodynamically controlled wet-dry cycling.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Antagonistic effects of amino acids support abiotic nano-environments in clay.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Complex and Messy Prebiotic Chemistry: Obstacles and Opportunities for an RNA World.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Abiotic sugar enantiomers in the CI carbonaceous chondrite Orgueil.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Water Versus Land on Temperate Rocky Planets.Space science reviews · 2026Review
- Decoding the interactions and functions of non-coding RNA with artificial intelligence.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2025Review
- High-Yield Prebiotic Polymerization of 2',3'-Cyclic Nucleotides under Wet-Dry Cycling.ACS central science · 2025Article
- Polymerization and replication of primordial RNA induced by clay-water interface dynamics.Communications chemistry · 2025Article
- Article
- The Origin of Life in the Early Continental Crust: A Comprehensive Model.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Selection of Early Life Codons by Ultraviolet Light.ACS central science · 2025Article
- Silicon isotopic signatures of granitoids support increased weathering of subaerial land 3.7 billion years ago.Communications earth & environment · 2025Article
- Article
- A Prebiotic Genetic Nucleotide as an Early Darwinian Ancestor for Pre-RNA Evolution.ACS omega · 2024Article
- Formation of extraterrestrial peptides and their derivatives.Science advances · 2024Article
- Microfluidics-Based Drying-Wetting Cycles to Investigate Phase Transitions of Small Molecules Solutions.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Could Life Have Started on Mars? Planetary Conditions That Assemble and Destroy Protocells.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Before the origin of simple cellular life, the building blocks of RNA (nucleotides) had to form and polymerize in favorable environments on early Earth. At this time, meteorites and interplanetary dust particles delivered organics such as nucleobases (the characteristic molecules of nucleotides) to warm little ponds whose wet-dry cycles promoted rapid polymerization. We build a comprehensive numerical model for the evolution of nucleobases in warm little ponds leading to the emergence of the first nucleotides and RNA. We couple Earth's early evolution with complex prebiotic chemistry in these environments. We find that RNA polymers must have emerged very quickly after the deposition of meteorites (less than a few years). Their constituent nucleobases were primarily meteoritic in origin and not from interplanetary dust particles. Ponds appeared as continents rose out of the early global ocean, but this increasing availability of "targets" for meteorites was offset by declining meteorite bombardment rates. Moreover, the rapid losses of nucleobases to pond seepage during wet periods, and to UV photodissociation during dry periods, mean that the synthesis of nucleotides and their polymerization into RNA occurred in just one to a few wet-dry cycles. Under these conditions, RNA polymers likely appeared before 4.17 billion years ago.
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