Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Study Of Fragmentation And Spontaneous Covalent Self-Assembly Of The Azaorcus Ribozyme From Multiple Small Inactive Rna Fragments, Tharuka Sewwandi Jayathilaka

Dissertations and Theses

The question about the origins of life often appears as a difficult question to answer. A more reliable candidate molecule for the chemical origins of life would be a molecule that is capable of making copies of itself from simple precursors. With the finding of the catalytic activities of RNA molecules by Thomas Cech and Sid Altman in late 1980s, the term ribozyme was introduced to define an RNA molecule with catalytic activity. The RNA World is a conceptual period in the early stages in the development of life because RNA simultaneously possesses evolvability and catalytic function. An RNA molecule …

Interpretation Of Chemical Environments By Rna And The Implications To The Origins Of Life, Brian Larson

Dissertations and Theses

We describe the initial realization of behavior in the biosphere, which we term behavioral chemistry. If molecules are complex enough to attain a stochastic element to their structural conformation in such a way as to radically affect their function in a biological (evolvable) setting, then they have the capacity to behave. This circumstance is described here as behavioral chemistry, unique in its definition from the colloquial chemical behavior. This transition between chemical behavior and behavioral chemistry need be explicit when discussing the root cause of behavior, which itself lies squarely at the origins of life and is the foundation of …

Spontaneous Cooperative Assembly Of Replicative Catalytic Rna Systems, Nilesh Vaidya

Dissertations and Theses

The RNA World hypothesis proposes a period of time during the origins of life in which RNA molecules were the only source of both genotypes and phenotypes. Although a vast amount of evidence has been obtained in support of this hypothesis, a few critical demonstrations are lacking. A most crucial one is a demonstration of self-replication of RNA molecule from prebiotic soup. Previously in the Lehman laboratory, it has been demonstrated that a 198-nucleotide molecule derived from the Azoarcus group I intron can self-assemble from up to four fragments of RNA via recombination. Furthermore, the covalent full-length molecules are catalytically …

The Original Build Up Of Genetic Information By Rna Recombination, Eric John Hayden

Dissertations and Theses

This research demonstrates chemical reactions of RNA molecules that allow them to increase in length, from non-catalytic oligomers to complex RNA enzymes. The purpose of this research was to explain the origin of large RNA polymers required for life to begin in the proposed "RNA World". To do this, the Azoarcus group I ribozyme was engineered to catalyze phosphodiester exchange reactions that result in the recombination of short oligomer substrates marked by ^5'CAU^3' recognition tags.

To demonstrate the ability to produce catalytic RNA sequences through recombination, substrate oligomers were synthesized that could produce ribozymes if large portions of …