Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33547911›Full record

ArticleJournal of molecular evolution2021

Cofactors are Remnants of Life's Origin and Early Evolution.

Aaron D Goldman, Betul Kacar

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of molecular evolution, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
50citing papers in PubMed
13.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

50 citing papers in PubMed, 105 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. The history of enzyme evolution embedded in metabolism.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Origins of life: the possible and the actual.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  11. Can the origin of biosynthetic routes be explained by a Frankenstein's monster-like spontaneous assembly of prebiotic reactants?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  12. Review
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  19. Order of amino acid recruitment into the genetic code resolved by last universal common ancestor's protein domains.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Aaron D GoldmanDepartment of Biology, Oberlin College and Conservatory, Oberlin, OH, 44074, USA. agoldman@oberlin.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1115-3697
Betul KacarBlue Marble Space Institute of Science, Seattle, WA, 98154, USA. betul@arizona.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0482-2357
Blue Marble Space · USTokyo Institute of Technology · JP

Funding

Shared Services Center NASA 80NSSC18M0069Shared Services Center NASA 80NSSC19K0069
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The RNA World is one of the most widely accepted hypotheses explaining the origin of the genetic system used by all organisms today. It proposes that the tripartite system of DNA, RNA, and proteins was preceded by one consisting solely of RNA, which both stored genetic information and performed the molecular functions encoded by that genetic information. Current research into a potential RNA World revolves around the catalytic properties of RNA-based enzymes, or ribozymes. Well before the discovery of ribozymes, Harold White proposed that evidence for a precursor RNA world could be found within modern proteins in the form of coenzymes, the majority of which contain nucleobases or nucleoside moieties, such as Coenzyme A and S-adenosyl methionine, or are themselves nucleotides, such as ATP and NADH (a dinucleotide). These coenzymes, White suggested, had been the catalytic active sites of ancient ribozymes, which transitioned to their current forms after the surrounding ribozyme scaffolds had been replaced by protein apoenzymes during the evolution of translation. Since its proposal four decades ago, this groundbreaking hypothesis has garnered support from several different research disciplines and motivated similar hypotheses about other classes of cofactors, most notably iron-sulfur cluster cofactors as remnants of the geochemical setting of the origin of life. Evidence from prebiotic geochemistry, ribozyme biochemistry, and evolutionary biology, increasingly supports these hypotheses. Certain coenzymes and cofactors may bridge modern biology with the past and can thus provide insights into the elusive and poorly-recorded period of the origin and early evolution of life.

Indexed as

RNA, CatalyticCoenzymesEvolution, MolecularNucleotidesOrigin of LifeProteinsRNACoenzymesNucleotidesProteinsRNARNA, CatalyticAncient lifeCoenzymesCofactorsEarly evolutionOrigin of lifeRNA world

Identifiers

PMID33547911
PMCPMC7982383
OpenAlexW3127613891

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.