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Origins of life

Systems chemistry on early Earth

Nature volume 459, pages 171–172 (2009)Cite this article

Understanding how life emerged on Earth is one of the greatest challenges facing modern chemistry. A new way of looking at the synthesis of RNA sidesteps a thorny problem in the field.

It is well established that the evolution of life passed through an early stage in which RNA played central roles in both inheritance and catalysis1 — roles that are currently played by DNA and protein enzymes, respectively. But where did the RNA come from?

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Figure 1: Theories of prebiotic syntheses of pyrimidine ribonucleotides.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jack W. Szostak is in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. szostak@molbio.mgh.harvard.edu,

    Jack W. Szostak

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  1. Jack W. Szostak
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Szostak, J. Systems chemistry on early Earth. Nature 459, 171–172 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459171a

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