Evolutionary routes from a prebiotic ANA-world

Abstract

Recent experimental support has been generated for a model of prebiotic development that postulates a role for Amyloid-Nucleic Acid (ANA)-fibers as the earliest replicating entities capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution. Here, this new model is compared with existing RNA-world models with a particular focus on trajectories that lead to evolutionary-beneficial interactions between nucleic acid, protein and lipid components. This analysis suggests a number of new areas for fruitful experimental studies.

Keywords: :

• amyloid
• liposome
• origin of life
• prebiotic evolution
• protocell
• RNA-world
• RNAzyme

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