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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Spontaneous Recombination Of Short Rnas To Increase Length And Complexity In Prebiotically Plausible Conditions, Benedict Arthur Smail
Spontaneous Recombination Of Short Rnas To Increase Length And Complexity In Prebiotically Plausible Conditions, Benedict Arthur Smail
Dissertations and Theses
The RNA World hypothesis is an influential theory of how life arose on earth which posits that the earliest life forms carried out essential activities with RNA catalysts instead of proteins. Substantial evidence to support this theory comes from among others, the fact that the ribosome is a ribozyme, the existence of small RNA catalysts capable of high activity, and self-assembling ribozymes such as the Azoarcus ribozyme. Additional support has been provided by the directed evolution of various ribozymes and the reputed prebiotic synthesis of nucleotides and small RNA oligomers. However, it has long been challenging to show how long …
Spontaneous Advent Of Genetic Diversity In Rna Populations Through Multiple Recombination Mechanisms, Benedict A. Smail, Bryce E. Clifton, Ryo Mizuuchi, Niles Lehman
Spontaneous Advent Of Genetic Diversity In Rna Populations Through Multiple Recombination Mechanisms, Benedict A. Smail, Bryce E. Clifton, Ryo Mizuuchi, Niles Lehman
Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations
There are several plausible abiotic synthetic routes from prebiotic chemical materials to ribonucleotides and even short RNA oligomers. However, for refinement of the RNA World hypothesis to help explain the origins of life on the Earth, there needs to be a manner by which such oligomers can increase their length and expand their sequence diversity. Oligomers longer than at least 10-20 nucleotides would be needed for raw material for subsequent natural selection. Here, we explore spontaneous RNA-RNA recombination as a facile means by which such length and diversity enhancement could have been realized. Motivated by the discovery that RNA oligomers …