Department of Chemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Butenandtstr. 5-13', 81377, Munich, Germany.
Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany.
Chemistry. 2020 Nov 20;26(65):14776-14790. doi: 10.1002/chem.202001513. Epub 2020 Sep 17.
Ever since the discovery of nucleic acids 150 years ago, major achievements have been made in understanding and decrypting the fascinating scientific questions of the genetic code. However, the most fundamental question about the origin and the evolution of the genetic code remains a mystery. How did nature manage to build up such intriguingly complex molecules able to encode structure and function from simple building blocks? What conditions were required? How could the precursors survive the unhostile environment of early Earth? Over the past decades, promising synthetic concepts were proposed providing clarity in the field of prebiotic nucleic acid research. In this Minireview, we show the current status and various approaches to answer these fascinating questions.
自从 150 年前发现核酸以来，人们在理解和破解遗传密码这一迷人的科学问题方面取得了重大进展。然而，关于遗传密码的起源和进化的最根本问题仍然是一个谜。大自然是如何设法构建出如此复杂的分子，从简单的构建块中编码结构和功能的？需要什么条件？早期地球恶劣的环境中，前体分子是如何幸存下来的？在过去的几十年中，有前景的合成概念被提出来，为前生物核酸研究领域提供了清晰的认识。在这篇综述中，我们展示了当前回答这些迷人问题的现状和各种方法。
