RNA and the Origin of Life
Prof. Dr. Jack W. Szostak
University of Chicago
Nobel Laureate in Physilogy or Medicine 2009
There are many reasons to think that Life began with RNA as its genetic and functional polymer, most notably the fact that all proteins in all cells are synthesized by the RNA components of the ribosome. But how did RNA-based Life emerge from the chemistry of the early Earth? Increasingly efficient and plausible pathways for the prebiotic synthesis of nucleotides and amino acids have been and are being worked out. However, many questions must be addressed to connect prebiotic synthetic chemistry to the origins of primitive Life. For example, can RNA copying and replication occur without enzymes, and if so, how? And how did the first ribozymes assemble from smaller RNA fragments? I will discuss recent progress on these and related questions.