German researchers find a new "recipe" that mimics the key molecules of synthetic life origin

:2018-10-25

How life originated on the earth is a problem that has not yet been solved. The scientific community believes that RNA (ribonucleic acid) plays a key role in it, but has never found a way to synthesize RNA by simulating the ancient earth environment. Researchers have recently found a new "formulation" that mimics the basic "modules" of synthetic RNA using simple materials found on ancient Earth.

RNA is an important genetic material that is thought to play a key role in the transmission of genetic information and protein synthesis in primitive life. RNA consists of four basic "modular" molecules, namely cytosine, uracil, adenine, and guanine.

In the past, British researchers have simulated the synthesis of cytosine and uracil in the ancient earth environment. German researcher Thomas Karel also simulated synthetic adenine and guanine. Unfortunately, the chemical reactions used in the two studies were inconsistent, meaning that the four basic modules were not synthesized together.

According to the US Science magazine website, Karel recently reported at an academic conference in Atlanta, USA that he found a new "recipe" that uses oxygen, nitrogen, methane, ammonia, water and hydrogen cyanide. Six simple substances found on the ancient earth, using substances such as mercaptans and iron salts to simulate the current environment, can carry out complex chemical reactions in a container, and finally together generate four basic modules of RNA.

This "formulation" is a new development in simulating the origin of the ancient earth environment research, but there are still problems to be solved, that is, how the four modules are connected together to form RNA. In the future, researchers will further explore the mysteries of the origin of life on this basis.

Source: Xinhuanet

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