RNA based evolving system, RNA world in action.

Pinball1970

Pinball1970

Valued Senior Member
Recent work on the "RNA world" model

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2321592121

From the abstract,

"This study demonstrates the critical importance of replication fidelity for maintaining heritable information in an RNA-based evolving system, such as is thought to have existed during the early history of life on Earth."

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-life-evidence-rna-world.html

from the article

"The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), unveils an RNA enzyme that can make accurate copies of other functional RNA strands, while also allowing new variants of the molecule to emerge over time. These remarkable capabilities suggest the earliest forms of evolution may have occurred on a molecular scale in RNA."
 
Pinball1970 said:
Recent work on the "RNA world" model

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2321592121

From the abstract,

"This study demonstrates the critical importance of replication fidelity for maintaining heritable information in an RNA-based evolving system, such as is thought to have existed during the early history of life on Earth."

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-life-evidence-rna-world.html

from the article

"The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), unveils an RNA enzyme that can make accurate copies of other functional RNA strands, while also allowing new variants of the molecule to emerge over time. These remarkable capabilities suggest the earliest forms of evolution may have occurred on a molecular scale in RNA."
Click to expand...
I don't know enough about this field to follow it all. What is this hammerhead all about?
 
Over the last decade, Joyce and his team have been developing RNA polymerase ribozymes in the lab, using a form of directed evolution to produce new versions capable of replicating larger molecules. But most have come with a fatal flaw: they aren't able to copy the sequences with a high enough accuracy. Over many generations, so many errors are introduced into the sequence that the resulting RNA strands no longer resemble the original sequence and have lost their function entirely.
Click to expand...

Okay. So they've finally got an RNA strand that does maintain a critical threshold of replication accuracy, but still also permits some novelties or mutations to arise that are minimal enough to not eventually destroy RNA function.
_
 
C C said:
Okay. So they've finally got an RNA strand that does maintain a critical threshold of replication accuracy, but still also permits some novelties or mutations to arise that are minimal enough to not eventually destroy RNA function.
_
Click to expand...
Yes, that is what the study is showing. Hopefully the team and other teams will repeat this work, tweak and make extensions of it.
Exciting stuff.
 
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