Earth, a planetary PCR machine to create life, or the brief history of a tRNA

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Jimenez, Juan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Jimenez, Juan
author_facet Jimenez, Juan
contents About 4 billion years ago, the Earth probably fulfilled the environmental conditions necessary to favour the transition from primitive chemistry to life. Based on a theoretical hairpin duplication origin of tRNAs and their putative peptide-coding capability before ribosomes existed, here I postulate that, at this hypothetical environment, Earth's daily temperature cycles could have provided a unique planetary thermocycler to create self-replicating RNA hairpins that simultaneously templated amino acids polymerization in a primordial PCR well of prebiotic molecules. This early RNA hairpin-peptide interaction could have established a reciprocal nucleopeptide replicator that paved the way for catalytic translation and replication machineries towards the origin of LUCA.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_14436
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Earth, a planetary PCR machine to create life, or the brief history of a tRNA
Jimenez, Juan
Biological Physics
Populations and Evolution
92D15
About 4 billion years ago, the Earth probably fulfilled the environmental conditions necessary to favour the transition from primitive chemistry to life. Based on a theoretical hairpin duplication origin of tRNAs and their putative peptide-coding capability before ribosomes existed, here I postulate that, at this hypothetical environment, Earth's daily temperature cycles could have provided a unique planetary thermocycler to create self-replicating RNA hairpins that simultaneously templated amino acids polymerization in a primordial PCR well of prebiotic molecules. This early RNA hairpin-peptide interaction could have established a reciprocal nucleopeptide replicator that paved the way for catalytic translation and replication machineries towards the origin of LUCA.
title Earth, a planetary PCR machine to create life, or the brief history of a tRNA
topic Biological Physics
Populations and Evolution
92D15
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.14436