Scientists recreate a chemical reaction which may have sprung life on Earth

In a major breakthrough, scientists have recreated a chemical reaction which may have led to the creation of complex, self-replicating structures which eventually developed into living things on Earth.

As per one school of thought, before the DNA-based life's current era, there was a type of molecule known as RNA (or ribonucleic acid). RNA, which has continued to remain a crucial component of life till today, has the potential of replicating itself and catalysing other chemical reactions.

However, RNA molecules are made from smaller components known as ribonucleotides. Scientists have been trying to find out how these building blocks came into existence early on Earth and then combined into RNA.

A chain of reactions is being recreated by the chemists which is needed to form RNA that leads to the emergence of life.

Speaking about recreating the chain of reactions, PhD Candidate in Prebiotic Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Quoc Phuong Tran said, “We know whatever chemical reaction created ribonucleotides must have been able to happen in the messy, complicated environment found on our planet billions of years ago.”

Autocatalytic reactions and their part in creating life

“I have been studying whether "autocatalytic" reactions may have played a part. These are reactions that produce chemicals that encourage the same reaction to happen again, which means they can sustain themselves in a wide range of circumstances,” he added.

These comments of Phuong Tran were published in an article in The Conversation.

“In our latest work, my colleagues and I have integrated autocatalysis into a well-known chemical pathway for producing the ribonucleotide building blocks, which could have plausibly happened with the simple molecules and complex conditions found on the early Earth,” the chemist stated.

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Emphasising the importance of autocatalytic reactions, he stated that they play important roles in biology which can vary from regulating our heartbeats to creating patterns on seashells.

“In fact, the replication of life itself, where one cell takes in nutrients and energy from the environment to produce two cells, is a particularly complicated example of autocatalysis. In our study, we tried adding another simple molecule called cyanamide to the formose reaction. This makes it possible for some of the molecules made during the reaction to be "siphoned off" to produce ribonucleotides,” he stated.

(With inputs from agencies)