Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles.
Genome Biol Evol. 2018 Jul 1;10(7):1705-1714. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evy129.
The Origin of Life Domain (OLD) is the period during which life on Earth began. Here, we derive and use a new phylogenetic algorithm to analyze Protein Families in order to reconstruct the chronological steps by which the OLD evolved. During this period, life began with the appearance of the fundamental components of life such as RNAs, DNAs, amino acids, and membranes. Chronologically, the Origin of Life preceded the Last Universal Common Ancestor, which then subsequently engendered modern life on Earth. Our phylogenetic algorithm allows us to explicitly answer previously unknown origin of life questions. Specifically, we explain and illustrate our computational methods by reconstructing the rings describing the evolution of the RNA and DNA worlds. We phylogenetically reconstruct how the RNA and DNA worlds evolved, infer the origins and chronological order of appearance of the first genetic codes, test whether the Ribosomal RNA world preceded the Membrane world, and interpret these new findings with respect to the experimental and theoretical origin of life studies by others.
生命起源域 (OLD) 是地球生命开始的时期。在这里，我们推导并使用一种新的系统发生算法来分析蛋白质家族，以重建 OLD 进化的时间步骤。在这个时期，生命从 RNA、DNA、氨基酸和膜等生命基本成分的出现开始。从时间顺序上看，生命起源先于最后一个普遍共同祖先，然后后者又产生了地球上的现代生命。我们的系统发生算法使我们能够明确回答以前未知的生命起源问题。具体来说，我们通过重建描述 RNA 和 DNA 世界进化的环来解释和说明我们的计算方法。我们从系统发生学上重建了 RNA 和 DNA 世界的进化过程，推断了第一个遗传密码的起源和出现顺序，检验了核糖体 RNA 世界是否先于膜世界出现，并根据其他人的实验和理论生命起源研究来解释这些新发现。
