Pressman Abe, Blanco Celia, Chen Irene A
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA; Program in Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Curr Biol. 2015 Oct 5;25(19):R953-63. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.06.016.
Understanding how life arose is a fundamental problem of biology. Much progress has been made by adopting a synthetic and mechanistic perspective on originating life. We present a current view of the biochemistry of the origin of life, focusing on issues surrounding the emergence of an RNA World in which RNA dominated informational and functional roles. There is cause for optimism on this difficult problem: the prebiotic chemical inventory may not have been as nightmarishly complex as previously thought; the catalytic repertoire of ribozymes continues to expand, approaching the goal of self-replicating RNA; encapsulation in protocells provides evolutionary and biophysical advantages. Nevertheless, major issues remain unsolved, such as the origin of a genetic code. Attention to this field is particularly timely given the accelerating discovery and characterization of exoplanets.
理解生命如何起源是生物学的一个基本问题。通过对生命起源采取综合和机械论的观点已取得了很大进展。我们阐述了当前关于生命起源生物化学的观点，重点关注围绕RNA世界出现的问题，在这个世界中RNA主导着信息和功能角色。对于这个难题有理由感到乐观：前生物化学物质清单可能不像以前认为的那样复杂得令人绝望；核酶的催化功能不断扩展，正朝着自我复制RNA的目标迈进；原细胞中的封装提供了进化和生物物理优势。然而，一些主要问题仍然没有解决，比如遗传密码的起源。鉴于系外行星的发现和特征描述加速，关注这个领域尤为及时。
