ArticleRNA (New York, N.Y.)2019
Spontaneous advent of genetic diversity in RNA populations through multiple recombination mechanisms.
Article in RNA (New York, N.Y.), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- 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
- Selection-diversification interplay in oligonucleotide chemical evolution.Biophysics and physicobiology · 2025Article
- Constraints on the emergence of RNA through non-templated primer extension with mixtures of potentially prebiotic nucleotides.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- Origin & influence of autocatalytic reaction networks at the advent of the RNA world.RNA biology · 2024Review
- Emergence of linkage between cooperative RNA replicators encoding replication and metabolic enzymes through experimental evolution.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- Minimal RNA self-reproduction discovered from a random pool of oligomers.Chemical science · 2023Article
- Primitive Compartmentalization for the Sustainable Replication of Genetic Molecules.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- In vitro selections with RNAs of variable length converge on a robust catalytic core.Nucleic acids research · 2021Article
- Constraint Closure Drove Major Transitions in the Origins of Life.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- The difficult case of an RNA-only origin of life.Emerging topics in life sciences · 2019Article
- Big on Change, Small on Innovation: Evolutionary Consequences of RNA Sequence Duplication.Journal of molecular evolution · 2019Article
- Mapping a Systematic Ribozyme Fitness Landscape Reveals a Frustrated Evolutionary Network for Self-Aminoacylating RNA.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2019Article
- Limited Sequence Diversity Within a Population Supports Prebiotic RNA Reproduction.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
There are several plausible abiotic synthetic routes from prebiotic chemical materials to ribonucleotides and even short RNA oligomers. However, for refinement of the RNA World hypothesis to help explain the origins of life on the Earth, there needs to be a manner by which such oligomers can increase their length and expand their sequence diversity. Oligomers longer than at least 10-20 nucleotides would be needed for raw material for subsequent natural selection. Here, we explore spontaneous RNA-RNA recombination as a facile means by which such length and diversity enhancement could have been realized. Motivated by the discovery that RNA oligomers stored for long periods of time in the freezer expand their lengths, we systematically investigated RNA-RNA recombination processes. In addition to one known mechanism, we discovered at least three new mechanisms. In these, one RNA oligomer acts as a splint to catalyze the hybridization of two other oligomers and facilitates the attack of a 5'-OH, a 3'-OH, or a 2'-OH nucleophile of one oligomer onto a target atom of another. This leads to the displacement of one RNA fragment and the production of new recombinant oligomers. We show that this process can explain the spontaneous emergence of sequence complexity, both in vitro and in silico.
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