ForTheScience.org

A groundbreaking paper “Generation of long RNA chains in water” from Costanzo, Pino, Ciciriello and Di Mauro on Journal of Biological Chemistry proposes conditions for the obtainment of complex RNA chains from cyclic nucleotides. The proposed conditions are typical for the pre-biotic Earth: hot springs and puddles with water at moderate temperature (40 to 90 C), without any organic or inorganic catalysis, with simply obtainable cyclic nucleotides. This allowed the formation of long RNA chains carrying the first genetic information, starting the natural selection process of improvement. The results on this paper propose an effective and important advancement for the last piece of the puzzle of evolution: how everything started.