![a) Biological evolution as stochastic optimization: Initially, wild-type cells x grow up a population. A mutant y grows up a population. The populations x and y compete. The winner (greater population) then fetches more resources. Fitness landscapes at the bottom show how the mutant is an experiment, where the winner decides the next step direction. b) Evolution annotated in terms of the Central Dogma: (Left, green) Wildtype starting point, NA encodes PR, which gives fitness F. (Top, red), Mutation in the blueprint NA, becoming NA’. (Red, green) both NA sequences grow up into populations. (Next) The populations compete for fitness. The winner, Fx now carries with it the winning sequence NAx and protein P Rx. -- [biorxiv.org]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/RNA-And-Proteins.png?fit=1200%2C678&ssl=1)
[biorxiv.org] What drove nucleic acids (NA) to associate with proteins (PR) at the Origins of Life? We reason from polymer physics and the Central Dogma (CD) that the fitness value of cooperating through a division of labor – NA for replication fidelity and PR for functional fitness – is much higher than for either polymer alone.
Our model shows a Pareto Front, where NA and PR can bootstrap each other to achieve autocatalytic cooperativity towards biology.
To understand how the first cells arose from prebiotic chemistry requires making sense of what drove the association between protein molecules and RNA or DNA molecules (1, 2). Today’s living systems depend on both types of sequence-defined polymers: nucleic acids (NA) (RDNA, our shorthand for RNA and DNA) and protein molecules (PR). We call this a 2-polymer world (2PW).
Could a simpler, or earlier, form of life have been a one-polymer world (1PW)? For example the RNA World Hypothesis says that because RNA molecules can both carry information and catalyze some reactions, RNA alone might have initiated the first life (3–6). Alternatively, a Proteins World could have produced diverse functionalities prior to heritability (7–14).
RNA and proteins joined up at the Origins of Life: Persistence is the point, biorxiv.org
Astrobiology, Genomics,
