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The RNA world is a hypothetical stage in the evolutionary history of life on Earth in which self-replicating RNA molecules proliferated before the evolution of DNA and proteins. [1] The term also refers to the hypothesis that posits the existence of this stage. Alexander Rich first proposed the concept of the RNA world in 1962, [2] and Walter ...
RNA can also act as a hereditary molecule, which encouraged Walter Gilbert to propose that in the distant past, the cell used RNA as both the genetic material and the structural and catalytic molecule rather than dividing these functions between DNA and protein as they are today; this hypothesis is known as the "RNA world hypothesis" of the ...
Abiogenesis. Stages in the origin of life range from the well-understood, such as the habitable Earth and the abiotic synthesis of simple molecules, to the largely unknown, like the derivation of the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) with its complex molecular functionalities. [1]
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are nucleic acids. The nucleic acids constitute one of the four major ...
Last universal common ancestor. The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the hypothesized common ancestral cell from which the three domains of life, the Bacteria, the Archaea, and the Eukarya originated. The cell had a lipid bilayer; it possessed the genetic code and ribosomes which translated from DNA or RNA to proteins.
A second version of the central dogma is popular but incorrect. This is the simplistic DNA → RNA → protein pathway published by James Watson in the first edition of The Molecular Biology of the Gene (1965). Watson's version differs from Crick's because Watson describes a two-step (DNA → RNA and RNA → protein) process as the central ...
Transfer RNA. The interaction of tRNA and mRNA in protein synthesis. Transfer RNA (abbreviated tRNA and formerly referred to as sRNA, for soluble RNA[1]) is an adaptor molecule composed of RNA, typically 76 to 90 nucleotides in length (in eukaryotes). [2]
RNA-based evolution. RNA-based evolution is a theory that posits that RNA is not merely an intermediate between Watson and Crick model of the DNA molecule and proteins, but rather a far more dynamic and independent role-player in determining phenotype. By regulating the transcription in DNA sequences, the stability of RNA, and the capability of ...