1 Prospects for Understanding the Origin of the RNA World
1 Prospects for Understanding the Origin of the RNA World
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DOI：
10.1101/087969380.24.1
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发表时间：
1993
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
G. F. Joyce;L. Orgel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
G. F. Joyce;L. Orgel
在地球生命的发展中，基于RNA复制的进化先于蛋白质合成的出现，这一普遍观点在20多年前首次提出（Woese 1967; Crick 1968; Orgel 1968）。有人认为，完全由RNA组成的催化剂在生命起源的早期阶段可能很重要，但RNA催化剂可能仍然存在于当代生物中的可能性被忽视了。核酶的意外发现（Kruger et al. 1982; Guerrier-Takada et al. 1983）引发了对RNA在生命起源中作用的广泛讨论（Pace and Marsh 1985; Sharp 1985; Lewin 1986），并导致了“RNA世界”一词的诞生（吉尔伯特1986）。RNA世界对不同的作者意味着不同的东西，所以试图限制性定义是徒劳的。所有的RNA世界假说都包括三个基本假设：（1）在生命进化的某个时期，遗传连续性是通过RNA的复制来保证的;（2）沃森-克里克碱基配对是复制的关键;（3）基因编码的蛋白质不参与催化剂。RNA世界假说的不同之处在于它们对RNA世界之前的生命、RNA世界的代谢复杂性以及低分子量辅因子（可能包括多肽）在RNA世界化学中的作用的假设。应该强调的是，RNA世界作为我们DNA/蛋白质世界的前身的存在是一个假设。我们发现...
The general idea that, in the development of life on the earth, evolution based on RNA replication preceded the appearance of protein synthesis was first proposed more than 20 years ago (Woese 1967; Crick 1968; Orgel 1968). It was suggested that catalysts made entirely of RNA are likely to have been important at this early stage in the origins of life, but the possibility that RNA catalysts might still be present in contemporary organisms was overlooked. The unanticipated discovery of ribozymes (Kruger et al. 1982; Guerrier-Takada et al. 1983) initiated extensive discussion of the role of RNA in the origins of life (Pace and Marsh 1985; Sharp 1985; Lewin 1986) and led to the coining of the phrase “the RNA world” (Gilbert 1986). The RNA world means different things to different authors, so it would be futile to attempt a restrictive definition. All RNA world hypotheses include three basic assumptions: (1) At some time in the evolution of life, genetic continuity was assured by the replication of RNA; (2) Watson-Crick base-pairing was the key to replication; (3) genetically encoded proteins were not involved as catalysts. RNA world hypotheses differ in what they assume about life that may have preceded the RNA world, about the metabolic complexity of the RNA world, and about the role of low-molecular-weight cofactors, possibly including polypeptides, in the chemistry of the RNA world. It should be emphasized that the existence of an RNA world as a precursor of our DNA/protein world is a hypothesis. We find...