Origin of Life – In an RNA Pocket

[Frank Robert]

How did amino acids start bonding to form proteins? Weizmann Institute of Science researchers bring their findings to life in their lab

This story begins several billion years ago. There's only chemistry, no biology – that is, plenty of chemical compounds exist on Earth, but life hasn’t yet emerged. Then, among myriads of randomly self-assembled chemical structures, one tiny RNA molecular machine reveals itself as perfectly suitable for creating bonds between activated amino acids, the building blocks of future proteins. It’s a turning point in the story of our planet: The synthesis of proteins, biological molecules essential for life, can now begin. Prof. Ada Yonath and her team at the Weizmann Institute of Science believe they have recreated that moment in the lab, showing how it might have happened. As to the primordial peptide-bond-making machine, they discovered that it’s still present in virtually every cell of all living organisms, from bacteria to plants and animals, including ourselves.

"We were particularly struck by the fact that this pocket is found in the ribosomes of all organisms. And this is where all the action takes place"
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...Fast forward a few billion years. The theory had been upheld by calculations, deductions and dimerization experiments, in which the scientists created RNA dimeric constructs, mimicking the proposed protoribosome. But until recently, the theory’s tenets remained, well, largely theoretical. Now, in a new study led by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Tanaya Bose in Yonath’s lab, the scientists have provided it with experimental support.

Read More...

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[46AND2]

How did amino acids start bonding to form proteins? Weizmann Institute of Science researchers bring their findings to life in their lab

This story begins several billion years ago. There's only chemistry, no biology – that is, plenty of chemical compounds exist on Earth, but life hasn’t yet emerged. Then, among myriads of randomly self-assembled chemical structures, one tiny RNA molecular machine reveals itself as perfectly suitable for creating bonds between activated amino acids, the building blocks of future proteins. It’s a turning point in the story of our planet: The synthesis of proteins, biological molecules essential for life, can now begin. Prof. Ada Yonath and her team at the Weizmann Institute of Science believe they have recreated that moment in the lab, showing how it might have happened. As to the primordial peptide-bond-making machine, they discovered that it’s still present in virtually every cell of all living organisms, from bacteria to plants and animals, including ourselves.

"We were particularly struck by the fact that this pocket is found in the ribosomes of all organisms. And this is where all the action takes place"
​

​

...Fast forward a few billion years. The theory had been upheld by calculations, deductions and dimerization experiments, in which the scientists created RNA dimeric constructs, mimicking the proposed protoribosome. But until recently, the theory’s tenets remained, well, largely theoretical. Now, in a new study led by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Tanaya Bose in Yonath’s lab, the scientists have provided it with experimental support.

Read More...

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Link not working for me.

 

[Frank Robert]

Link not working for me.

My fault, I neglected to check. I edited it and it should be working now.

 

[Tolworth John]

among myriads of randomly self-assembled chemical structures,

An interesting article, but it does not explain how these chemicals structures formed, how they maintained there purety and were protected from the many agents that decompose them.

 

[SelfSim]

So much for @Mountainmike's anti-abiogenesis rants about there being no known proto-structures, none surviving, none that can be replicated in the lab, etc. Here is yet more evidence against his bogus claims.

All that now remains is finding subsets of these components in a non-Earth environment.
I notice the Mars Perseverance rover just categorised aromatic organics from the mudstone rock at Wildcat Ridge, Jezero crater .. news article here (dated 15 Sept 22).

Note: The real news in the OP is the isolation of the self-assembling (and ultimately, self-replicating), sub component. Its really very small compared with the molecular size of a complete ribosome:

It consists of RNA molecules comprising some 120 nucleotides, about 60 for each of its two semisymmetrical components, which accounts for less than 5 percent of the modern ribosome’s dimensions: some 4,500 nucleotides in bacteria and nearly 6,000 in humans

 

[Frank Robert]

An interesting article, but it does not explain how these chemicals structures formed, how they maintained there purety and were protected from the many agents that decompose them.

No one is denying that there is much more that needs to be discovered or uncovered.

 

[SelfSim]

PS: Synthetic ribosomes have been around, (in labs), for some 10 years or so .. see here, so that's not so much newsworthy, (IMO).

What is newsworthy is the tiny size, functionality and ubiquity across all life, of this molecular subset.

 

[AV1611VET]

This molecules to man by way of missing links stuff works only on paper.

 

[Shemjaza]

This molecules to man by way of missing links stuff works only on paper.

And in DNA... I've always thought this is a curious argument for you to put forward since your alternative option is literally based on a message stored on paper.