The RNA Worlds in Context
Open accessAbstract
There are two RNA worlds. The first is the primordial RNA world, a hypothetical era when RNA served as both information and function, both genotype and phenotype. The second RNA world is that of today's biological systems, where RNA plays active roles in catalyzing biochemical reactions, in translating mRNA into proteins, in regulating gene expression, and in the constant battle between infectious agents trying to subvert host defense systems and host cells protecting themselves from infection. This second RNA world is not at all hypothetical, and although we do not have all the answers about how it works, we have the tools to continue our interrogation of this world and refine our understanding. The fun comes when we try to use our secure knowledge of the modern RNA world to infer what the primordial RNA world might have looked like.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The discovery of ribozymes resolved the conundrum that DNA is necessary to make proteins but proteins are required for copying DNA.
“In 1982, this conflict was resolved by the discovery of ribozymes, catalytic RNA molecules [114,115].”
From Opinion: The Key Steps in the Origin of Life to the Formation of the Eukaryotic Cell (2024) · cites this paper as [115]
Section 1, “The Primordial RNA World” (page not supplied), says RNA can carry information and catalyze reactions, and that the discovery of RNA catalysis, including a 1982 study, gave the RNA-world hypothesis a much firmer basis. It does not say the DNA–protein conundrum was definitively resolved; “resolved” overstates the paper’s account. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
The RNA moiety of ribonuclease P is the catalytic subunit of the enzyme
Guerrier-Takada, C., Gardiner, K., Marsh, T., Pace, N., & Altman, S. (1983) · Cell · doi:10.1016/0092-8674(83)90117-4 · Cited by 2,684 · see citing works
Spliceosome Structure and Function
Will, C. L., & Luhrmann, R. (2011) · Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology · doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a003707 · Cited by 1,829 · see citing works
RNA-catalyzed RNA polymerization: Accurate and general RNA-templated primer extension.
Johnston, W. K., Unrau, P. J., Lawrence, M. S., Glasner, M. E., & Bartel, D. P. (2001) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1060786 · Cited by 768 · see citing works
Self-Sustained Replication of an RNA Enzyme
Lincoln, T. A., & Joyce, G. F. (2009) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1167856 · Cited by 670 · see citing works
Ferre-D'Amare, A. R., & Scott, W. G. (2010) · Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology · doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a003574 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Selection of an improved RNA polymerase ribozyme with superior extension and fidelity
Zaher, H. S., & Unrau, P. J. (2007) · RNA · doi:10.1261/rna.548807 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 22
- Benner SA, Kim H-J Yang Z. 2010. Setting the Stage: The history, chem- istry, and geobiology behind RNA. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a003541. · DOI
- Blackburn EH, Collins K. 2010. Telomerase: An RNP enzyme synthesizes DNA. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/ cshperspect.a003558. · DOI
- Breaker RR. 2010. Riboswitches and the RNA world. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a003566. · DOI
- Garst AD, Edwards AL, Batey RT. 2010. Ribswitches: Structures and mechanisms. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/ cshperspect.a003533. · DOI
- Gold L, Janjic N, Jarvis T, Schneider D, Walker JJ, Wilcox SK, Zichi D. 2010. Aptamers and the RNA world, past and present. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a003582. · DOI
- Gottesman S, Storz G. 2010. Bacterial small RNA regulators: Versatile roles and rapidly evolving variations. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a003798. · DOI
- Joshua-Tor L, Hannon GJ. 2010. Ancestral roles of small RNAs: An ago- centric perspective. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/ cshperspect.a003772. · DOI
- Lambowitz AM, Zimmerly S. 2010. Group II introns: Mobile ribozymes that invade DNA. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/ cshperspect.a003616. · DOI
- Lee JT. 2010. The X as model for RNA's niche in epigenomic regulation. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a003749. · DOI
- Mathews DH, Moss WN, Turner DH. 2010. Folding and finding RNA secondary structure. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/ cshperspect.a003665. · DOI
- Moore PB, Steitz TA. 2010. The roles of RNA in the synthesis of protein. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect. a003780. · DOI
- Noller HF. 2010. Evolution of protein synthesis from an RNAworld. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a003681. · DOI · Paper page
- Perrimon N, Ni J-Q, Perkins L. 2010. In vivo RNAi: Today and tomorrow. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a003640. · DOI
- Ramakrishnan V. 2010. The ribosome: Some hard facts about its struc- ture and hot air about its evolution. In RNA Worlds (eds. JF Atkins, RF Gesteland, TR Cech). Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY.
- Robertson MP, Joyce GF. 2010. The origins of the RNAworld. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a003608. · DOI · Paper page
- Schrum JP, Zhu TF, Szostak JW. 2010. The origins of cellular life. In RNA Worlds (eds. JF Atkins, RF Gesteland, TR Cech). Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY.
- Steitz J, Borah S, Cazalla D, Fok V, Lytle R, Mitton-Fry R, Riley K, Samji T. 2010. Noncoding RNPs of viral origin. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a005165. · DOI
- Tinoco I, Chen G, Qu X. 2010. RNA reactions one molecule at a time. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect. a003624. · DOI
- Volpe T, Martienssen RA. 2010. RNA interference and heterochro- matin assembly. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/ cshperspect.a003731. · DOI
- Wang X, Song X, Glass CK, Rosenfeld MG. 2010. The long arm of long noncoding RNAs: Roles as sensors regulating gene transcrip- tional programs. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/ cshperspect.a003756. · DOI
- Westhof E, Masquida B, Jossinet F. 2010. Predicting and modeling RNA architecture. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/ cshperspect.a003632. · DOI
- Yarus M. 2010. Getting past the RNA world: The initial Darwinian ancestor. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol doi: 10.1101/cshperspect. a003590. · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Recent Developments in mRNA-Based Protein Supplementation Therapy to Target Lung Diseases
Sahu, I., Haque, A. K. M. A., Weidensee, B., Weinmann, P., & Kormann, M. S. D. (2019) · Molecular Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.ymthe.2019.02.019 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Generation of oligonucleotides under hydrothermal conditions by non-enzymatic polymerization
DeGuzman, V., Vercoutere, W., Shenasa, H., & Deamer, D. (2014) · Journal of Molecular Evolution · doi:10.1007/s00239-014-9623-2 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Camprubí, E., de Leeuw, J. W., House, C. H., Raulin, F., Russell, M. J., Spang, A., Tirumalai, M. R., & Westall, F. (2019) · Space Science Reviews · doi:10.1007/s11214-019-0624-8 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
“Thomas R. Cech in his 2012 paper eloquently described two RNA worlds (Cech 2012).”
BackgroundViral and Synthetic RNA Vector Technologies and Applications
Schott, J. W., Morgan, M., Galla, M., & Schambach, A. (2016) · Molecular Therapy · doi:10.1038/mt.2016.143 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Opinion: The Key Steps in the Origin of Life to the Formation of the Eukaryotic Cell
Brunk, C. F., & Marshall, C. R. (2024) · Life · doi:10.3390/life14020226 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“The traditional view, stemming from the co-dependence of DNA and proteins in modern cells, is that the biology (e.g., catalysis) of first life was dominated by RNAs (ribozymes in the absence of protein and DNA), the so-called RNA world; see [115,127,128] for a review.”
Background
- Authors
- Cech, T. R.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cech, T. R.
- ORCID
- Cech, T. R.
- Venue
- Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology
- Publisher
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Published
- 2011-02-16
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- a006742-a006742
- ISSN
- 1943-0264 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3385955
- OpenAlex
- W2124125031
- Cited by
- 244
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 11
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- 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, RNA catalysis, ribozymes, translation (biology), gene expression regulation, host-pathogen interaction, origin of life, RNA evolution
- MeSH terms
- RNA, Protein Biosynthesis
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
