Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 1, 2026

Conducting Miller-Urey Experiments
Published on: January 21, 2014
The RNA World as a Model System to Study the Origin of Life
Abe Pressman1, Celia Blanco2, Irene A Chen3
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA; Program in Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Abstract:
Understanding how life arose is a fundamental problem of biology. Much progress has been made by adopting a synthetic and mechanistic perspective on originating life. We present a current view of the biochemistry of the origin of life, focusing on issues surrounding the emergence of an RNA World in which RNA dominated informational and functional roles. There is cause for optimism on this difficult problem: the prebiotic chemical inventory may not have been as nightmarishly complex as previously thought; the catalytic repertoire of ribozymes continues to expand, approaching the goal of self-replicating RNA; encapsulation in protocells provides evolutionary and biophysical advantages. Nevertheless, major issues remain unsolved, such as the origin of a genetic code. Attention to this field is particularly timely given the accelerating discovery and characterization of exoplanets.
More Related Videos
08:21Curation of Computational Chemical Libraries Demonstrated with Alpha-Amino Acids
Published on: April 13, 2022
09:04Studying Ribonucleotide Incorporation: Strand-specific Detection of Ribonucleotides in the Yeast Genome and Measuring Ribonucleotide-induced Mutagenesis
Published on: July 26, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Origin of Cellular Life
Conditions on Early Earth
Conditions on Early Earth
Three-Domain System of Life
Origin of Photosynthesis
Bacterial RNA Polymerase
In most genes, the transcription site is a single base present upstream of the coding sequence. Though RNAP is a catalytically efficient enzyme, it does not recognize...