The RNA World: molecular cooperation at the origins of life
Abstract
The RNA World concept posits that there was a period of time in primitive Earth's history - about 4 billion years ago - when the primary living substance was RNA or something chemically similar. In the past 50 years, this idea has gone from speculation to a prevailing idea. In this Review, we summarize the key logic behind the RNA World and describe some of the most important recent advances that have been made to support and expand this logic. We also discuss the ways in which molecular cooperation involving RNAs would facilitate the emergence and early evolution of life. The immediate future of RNA World research should be a very dynamic one.
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The key argument against the RNA World hypothesis has been the non-demonstration of a self-copying RNA replicase.
“The key argument against the RNA World hypothesis has so far been the non-demonstration of the existence of a self-copying RNA replicase”
From The Emergence of Life (2019) · cites this paper as Higgs and Lehman 2015
The alternative option, self-replicating RNA, does not fare better than catalytic networks regarding empirical evidence for spontaneous self-assembly in a prebiotic environment.
“Second, because the alternative option, self-replicating RNA, does not fare better than catalytic networks regarding empirical evidence for spontaneous self-assembly in a prebiotic environment [6].”
From Systems protobiology: origin of life in lipid catalytic networks (2018) · cites this paper as [6]
Cooperative systems are generally more stable towards parasites than autocatalytic self-replicators and are, in principle, able to gain in complexity.
“Moreover, cooperative systems are generally more stable towards parasites then autocatalytic self-replicators and are, in principle, able to gain in complexity [46–47].”
From Towards open-ended evolution in self-replicating molecular systems (2017) · cites this paper as [47]
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- Authors
- Higgs, P. G., & Lehman, N.
- Affiliations
- McMaster University (CA)
- Portland State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lehman, Niles
- Venue
- Nature Reviews Genetics
- Published
- 2014-11-11
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 7-17
- ISSN
- 1471-0056 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-0064
- OpenAlex
- W1970977492
- Cited by
- 604
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 59 · 2024: 68 · 2023: 60 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 60 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 54 · 2018: 42 · 2017: 41 · 2016: 40 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 2.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Reviews Genetics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Keywords
- RNA world, origin of life, RNA self-replication, RNA synthesis, early evolution of life, prebiotic chemistry, early Earth
- MeSH terms
- Origin of Life, Models, Biological, RNA, RNA, Catalytic, Evolution, Molecular, Base Pairing
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