ArticleOrigins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life2019
The RNA i-Motif in the Primordial RNA World.
Article in Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere : the journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 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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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- i-Motifs as regulatory switches: Mechanisms and implications for gene expression.Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids · 2025Review
- Special Issue "Bioinformatics of Unusual DNA and RNA Structures".International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Competitive Influence of Alkali Metals in the Ion Atmosphere on Nucleic Acid Duplex Stability.ACS omega · 2024Article
- Pressure Tuning Studies of Four-Stranded Nucleic Acid Structures.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The primordial RNA world is a hypothetical era prior to the appearance of protein and DNA, when RNA molecules were the sole building blocks for early forms of life on Earth. A critical concern with the RNA-world hypothesis is the instability of the cytosine nucleobase compared to the other three bases (adenine, guanine, and uracil). The author proposes that cytosine residues could have stably existed in the primordial world in the RNA i-motif, a four-stranded quadruplex structure formed by base-pairing of protonated and unprotonated cytosine residues under acidic conditions. The i-motif structure not only increases the lifetime of cytosine residues by slowing their deamination rate, but could also allow RNA polymers to bind to certain ligands (e.g., anions) to perform critical functions. Future studies focused on determining the rate of cytosine deamination in RNA i-motifs over a range of pH, temperature, and pressure conditions, and on interrogating the interactions between ligands and RNA i-motifs, could uncover new evidence of the origin of life on Earth.
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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.