Hud Nicholas V, Cafferty Brian J, Krishnamurthy Ramanarayanan, Williams Loren Dean
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Chem Biol. 2013 Apr 18;20(4):466-74. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2013.03.012.
The origin of RNA is one of the most formidable problems facing prebiotic chemists. We consider RNA as a product of evolution, as opposed to the more conventional view of RNA as originally being the product of abiotic processes. We have come to accept that life's informational polymers have changed in chemical structure since their emergence, which presents a quandary similar to the paradox of "My Grandfather's Axe". Here, we discuss reasons why all contemporary components of RNA--the nucleobases, ribose, and phosphate--are not likely the original components of the first informational polymer(s) of life. We also evaluate three distinct models put forth as pathways for how the earliest informational polymers might have assembled. We see the quest to uncover the ancestors of RNA as an exciting scientific journey, one that is already providing additional chemical constraints on the origin of life and one that has the potential to produce self-assembling materials, novel catalysis, and bioactive compounds.
RNA的起源是前生物化学家面临的最艰巨问题之一。我们认为RNA是进化的产物，这与将RNA视为最初是非生物过程产物的更传统观点相反。我们已经开始接受，生命的信息聚合物自出现以来在化学结构上已经发生了变化，这带来了一个类似于“我祖父的斧头”悖论的困境。在这里，我们讨论了为什么RNA的所有当代组成部分——核碱基、核糖和磷酸——不太可能是生命中第一个信息聚合物的原始组成部分。我们还评估了作为最早的信息聚合物可能组装方式提出的三种不同模型。我们将揭示RNA祖先的探索视为一次令人兴奋的科学之旅，它已经为生命起源提供了额外的化学限制，并且有可能产生自组装材料、新型催化和生物活性化合物。
