A team of scientists from the University of North Carolina (USA) has discovered new clues about the origin of life 4,000 million years ago thanks to a “primal genetic code” with specific enzymes, which could have given rise to complex life. The results of the study have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
Once the chemical elements present on our planet came together, organic molecules known as amino acids emerged. Then, the amino acids formed the proteins necessary to create individual cells and from these, to the complex ones, finally emerging plants and animals. The big question is, how did the amino acids come to generate the proteins in this “soup” for life?
According to the new work, the “RNA world hypothesis” in which RNA “made itself” is not complete, but rather that RNA received help from a “genetic code” prior to the current one. This conclusion has been the result of the analysis of the physical properties of 20 different amino acids. The results revealed that the polarity and size of these could explain the way in which the amino acid chains managed to couple into three-dimensional structures and then create them.
Thus, “the translation of the genetic code would have been the link that connects prebiotic chemistry with biology,” explain Richard Wolfenden and Charles Carter, authors of the study, thus solving the mystery of how life emerged on Earth: that primal genetic code generated a process of natural selection that led to the evolution of life from unicellular organisms to the present day.
