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Survival of the fittest before the beginning of life: selection of the first oligonucleotide-like polymers by UV light

BACKGROUND: A key event in the origin of life on this planet has been formation of self-replicating RNA-type molecules, which were complex enough to undergo a Darwinian-type evolution (origin of the "RNA world"). However, so far there has been no explanation of how the first RNA-like biopo...

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Autores principales: Mulkidjanian, Armen Y, Cherepanov, Dmitry A, Galperin, Michael Y
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2003
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC165426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12773209
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-3-12
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author Mulkidjanian, Armen Y
Cherepanov, Dmitry A
Galperin, Michael Y
author_facet Mulkidjanian, Armen Y
Cherepanov, Dmitry A
Galperin, Michael Y
author_sort Mulkidjanian, Armen Y
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: A key event in the origin of life on this planet has been formation of self-replicating RNA-type molecules, which were complex enough to undergo a Darwinian-type evolution (origin of the "RNA world"). However, so far there has been no explanation of how the first RNA-like biopolymers could originate and survive on the primordial Earth. RESULTS: As condensation of sugar phosphates and nitrogenous bases is thermodynamically unfavorable, these compounds, if ever formed, should have undergone rapid hydrolysis. Thus, formation of oligonucleotide-like structures could have happened only if and when these structures had some selective advantage over simpler compounds. It is well known that nitrogenous bases are powerful quenchers of UV quanta and effectively protect the pentose-phosphate backbones of RNA and DNA from UV cleavage. To check if such a protection could play a role in abiogenic evolution on the primordial Earth (in the absence of the UV-protecting ozone layer), we simulated, by using Monte Carlo approach, the formation of the first oligonucleotides under continuous UV illumination. The simulations confirmed that UV irradiation could have worked as a selective factor leading to a relative enrichment of the system in longer sugar-phosphate polymers carrying nitrogenous bases as UV-protectors. Partial funneling of the UV energy into the condensation reactions could provide a further boost for the oligomerization. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that accumulation of the first polynucleotides could be explained by their abiogenic selection as the most UV-resistant biopolymers.
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spelling pubmed-1654262003-07-16 Survival of the fittest before the beginning of life: selection of the first oligonucleotide-like polymers by UV light Mulkidjanian, Armen Y Cherepanov, Dmitry A Galperin, Michael Y BMC Evol Biol Research Article BACKGROUND: A key event in the origin of life on this planet has been formation of self-replicating RNA-type molecules, which were complex enough to undergo a Darwinian-type evolution (origin of the "RNA world"). However, so far there has been no explanation of how the first RNA-like biopolymers could originate and survive on the primordial Earth. RESULTS: As condensation of sugar phosphates and nitrogenous bases is thermodynamically unfavorable, these compounds, if ever formed, should have undergone rapid hydrolysis. Thus, formation of oligonucleotide-like structures could have happened only if and when these structures had some selective advantage over simpler compounds. It is well known that nitrogenous bases are powerful quenchers of UV quanta and effectively protect the pentose-phosphate backbones of RNA and DNA from UV cleavage. To check if such a protection could play a role in abiogenic evolution on the primordial Earth (in the absence of the UV-protecting ozone layer), we simulated, by using Monte Carlo approach, the formation of the first oligonucleotides under continuous UV illumination. The simulations confirmed that UV irradiation could have worked as a selective factor leading to a relative enrichment of the system in longer sugar-phosphate polymers carrying nitrogenous bases as UV-protectors. Partial funneling of the UV energy into the condensation reactions could provide a further boost for the oligomerization. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that accumulation of the first polynucleotides could be explained by their abiogenic selection as the most UV-resistant biopolymers. BioMed Central 2003-05-28 /pmc/articles/PMC165426/ /pubmed/12773209 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-3-12 Text en Copyright © 2003 Mulkidjanian et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mulkidjanian, Armen Y
Cherepanov, Dmitry A
Galperin, Michael Y
Survival of the fittest before the beginning of life: selection of the first oligonucleotide-like polymers by UV light
title Survival of the fittest before the beginning of life: selection of the first oligonucleotide-like polymers by UV light
title_full Survival of the fittest before the beginning of life: selection of the first oligonucleotide-like polymers by UV light
title_fullStr Survival of the fittest before the beginning of life: selection of the first oligonucleotide-like polymers by UV light
title_full_unstemmed Survival of the fittest before the beginning of life: selection of the first oligonucleotide-like polymers by UV light
title_short Survival of the fittest before the beginning of life: selection of the first oligonucleotide-like polymers by UV light
title_sort survival of the fittest before the beginning of life: selection of the first oligonucleotide-like polymers by uv light
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC165426/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12773209
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-3-12
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