Sentences with phrase «rna world»

«I have been working for years to learn what replicators and genetic systems might have come before the advent of the RNA World,» says team leader of the new research Professor Reza Ghadiri, a Scripps Research chemist.

The late Leslie Orgel, a co-author of the new paper, first suggested this idea, known as the «RNA World.»

But he does think say that if you want an RNA world, you have to accept his chemistry — which simply couldn't have happened on Earth.

Its discovery is overturning our understanding of how we came to be — and could signal the end of the favoured explanation of the origin of life, «RNA world».

Biologists have a hypothesis that there was once an RNA world [RNA is a single - stranded cousin of DNA that acts as a translator between DNA and the protein factories in living cells].

But not everyone buys into this «RNA world».

Rest in peace: Talking chimp, famed biochemists, A-bomb pilot The science deaths came fast and furious starting last week when Leslie Orgel, 80, an early proponent of the «RNA world» hypothesis to explain the birth of life on Earth, succumbed to pancreatic cancer.

The finding of miRNAs in organisms as simple as Chlamy makes sense, Stern says, as «much of biology turns out to be run by the RNA world.»

RNA (ribonucleic acid) is a nucleic acid present in all modern life, but scientists have long hypothesized an «RNA World,» where the first proto - life was made of individual RNA strands that both contained genetic information and could copy itself.

Biologists suspect that life as we know it emerged from an «RNA world» in which RNA molecules could copy themselves and store genetic information.

According to the RNA world hypothesis, early life used RNA to carry genetic information and perform biochemical catalytic reactions.

«The exciting thing about this study is that it now opens up the RNA world to the ease of experimental design afforded by CRISPR.»

But Benner cautions that a true confirmation of the RNA world remains a ways off.

An RNA molecule that copies other RNAs harkens back to the «RNA world» near the dawn of life on Earth.

But there are problems with this so - called RNA World hypothesis.

Finding such an RNA copier «is the bull's - eye of the RNA world hypothesis,» says Gerald Joyce, a chemist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California.

So some scientists hypothesized life that started as an «RNA world» — a period in which RNA controlled both the genetics and biochemistry inside all cells.

Joyce agrees and notes that even if an RNA world preceded the rise of DNA and proteins, it too may have been preceded by earlier forms of biochemistry.

«RNA controls splicing during gene expression, further evidence of «RNA world» origin in modern life.»

Secondly, Wills has shown that impossible obstacles would have blocked any transition from a pure - RNA world to a protein - RNA world and onward toward life.

«We believe that this is what gave rise to a peptide - RNA world early in Earth's history,» Carter said.

A key piece of evidence for this «RNA world» hypothesis is that RNA is a jack of all trades.

RNA begat DNA, and DNA begat lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins: That is Genesis according to the «RNA world» hypothesis, a leading but still sketchy picture of how life began.

Read more: Why «RNA world» theory on origin of life may be wrong after all; First life: The search for the first replicator

If so, RNA world — and the whole field of biogenesis — will look a lot more credible.

That base, an adenosine, is conserved in organisms throughout the tree of life, he reports, and it could well date back to the RNA world.

That means the oddball entity could be a molecular relic from the RNA world, which predated the evolution of DNA, lending credence to the idea that life depended first on RNA.

Duax also noted that the results raise questions about some aspects of a hypothesis on the origins of life, called the RNA world, which posits that RNA, which is similar to DNA and is still used in cells, was the first genetic material.

I think there was an RNA world prior to the DNA world, when you had a lot of RNA cells.

So - called RNA viruses are rogues: smaller, fast - replicating shape - shifters, descended from a time that evolutionary biologists refer to as the RNA world, back near the base of life's tree, before today's DNA - based organisms evolved.

So four years ago, Szostak decided to expand his research on the RNA world: He set out to find a simple way to enclose his ribozymes.

Here was one possible way in which the pieces of the RNA world might have come together in cells that could grow and divide.

The RNA world might have been born in clay, Ferris argued, perhaps the clay that coated the ocean floor around hydrothermal vents.

A cold early Earth, say Levy and Miller, may be necessary to preserve the RNA world.

One snag in this theory has been the fact that modern organisms need protein enzymes to copy their genetic information — substances that would not have existed in a purely RNA world.

Only after life passed through this «RNA world,» many scientists now agree, did it take on a more familiar cast.

Other scientists have focused their efforts on figuring out how the lifeless chemistry of a prebiotic Earth could have given rise to an RNA world.

This «RNA world» theory has been bolstered by evidence that some RNA molecules can duplicate others — a key task normally performed by proteins (ScienceNOW, 17 May 2001).

Life probably began as an «RNA world,» in which concatenations of RNA molecules pulled double duty as genetic template and reproductive machinery.

For a long time, RNA has lived in the shadow of its more famous chemical cousin DNA and of the proteins that supposedly took over RNA's functions in the transition from the «RNA world» to the modern one.

RNA begat DNA, and DNA begat lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins: That's Genesis according to the «RNA world» hypothesis.

Now, as Thomas Cech explains in his Perspective, atomic resolution of the structure of the large ribosomal subunit reveals that, as predicted by those convinced of a prebiotic RNA world, RNA is the catalytic component with proteins being the structural units that support and stabilize it (Ban et al., Nissen et al., Muth et al.).

Much of the evidence for this so - called RNA world lies in our own cells.

The best evidence of the RNA world, though, would be finding natural RNA - based life that is still lurking on Earth today.

According to this «RNA world» hypothesis, the earliest forms of life used RNA for everything, with little or no help from DNA.

At that point, the RNA world became the DNA world, and life as we know it began.

Apparently NASA has lost enthusiasm for the RNA world as well.

And by 1993 he says, «It may turn out that we will eventually be able to see how this RNA world got started.

James D. Watson, «Prologue: Early Speculations and Facts about RNA Templates,» p xv - xxiii, The RNA World, R.F. Gesteland and J.F. Atkins, eds.

The term «RNA world» was first used in a 1986 article by Harvard molecular biologist Walter Gilbert (3):