In addition to being delivered via exogenous means (e.g., chondritic meteorites and comets), amino acids are hypothesized to have been present on early Earth via Urey–Miller-type abiotic processes.
RNA
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Radiation, Status Report
Flare-driven Habitability: Expanding Life’s Potential Around Low-mass Stars
The traditional definition of the circumstellar habitable zone (HZ) focuses on liquid water, but neglects the crucial role of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in prebiotic chemistry.
Posted inAnalog Studies, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Icelandic Hot Springs as a Prebiotic Analog: Wet-Dry Cycling Effects on the Stability of Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids
The hot spring hypothesis for the origin of life proposes that naturally occurring wet-dry cycles in small bodies of water could have driven condensation reactions on prebiotic Earth.
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Exploration Gear & Tech, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors
New Computational Biology Tool Automates And Standardizes Genome Sequencing Analysis
Editor’s note: with recent speculation about the potential habitability of other worlds and understanding the processes whereby other biospheres arise and evolve, thought needs to be given to developing sensor […]
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Citizen Science / Open Science, Commercial & Private Sector, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Status Report
With Evo 2, AI Can Model And Design The Genetic Code For All Domains Of Life
The DNA foundation model Evo 2, first released in February 2025 as a preprint, is now published in the journal Nature. Trained on the DNA of over 100,000 species across […]
![Kinetic processes of the strand-based RNA reactor model [12,13,15] and their projection onto motif kinetics. We consider heteropolymer strands consisting of the two complementary nucleotides X and Y, which could represent RNA or DNA nucleotides. (a) Schematic of the reactions within the strand reactor, including hybridization, dehybridization, templated ligation, and cleavage of oligonucleotide strands. Strands that are not covalently linked are separated by small gaps; four-nucleotide motifs, including 3′ or 5′ ends, are highlighted in green. In templated ligation, a 3′- and a 5′-end motif build a six-nucleotide motif that contains three overlapping four-nucleotide motifs. (b) At the level of sequence motifs, the kinetics are based on motif production and motif breakage reactions. In four-nucleotide motifs, strand ends are marked with 3′ or 5′, respectively. Templated ligation generates longer strands containing additional motifs, thereby contributing to motif production, while strand cleavage leads to to motif breakage. Hybridization is not explicitly represented in the motif-level description; instead, it is implicitly incorporated into the rate constants for motif production and breakage by assuming a hybridization-dehybridization equilibrium and deducing the corresponding dissociation constants. -- Physical Review E](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Sequence-Motif-Dynamics.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Sequence Motif Dynamics In RNA Pools
In RNA world scenarios, pools of RNA oligomers form strongly interacting, dynamic systems, which enable molecular evolution.
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Prebiotic Resource Constraints And The Origin Of Life: A Linear Logic Framework
The origin of life is a complex scientific problem demanding interdisciplinary approaches. We propose a Linear Logic (LL)-based computational framework to formally evaluate the feasibility of early biochemical pathways across […]
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Sample Return, Status Report
Genomic Adaptations Of Novel Halotolerant Bacteria From Extreme North Greenland
Peary Land, northern-most Greenland, is a cold desert region whose soil microbiome remains underexplored. This is the first study to explore the halotolerant soil microbiome of this region with culture-dependent […]
Posted inBiophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
A Parasitic Origin For The Ribosome?
Ribosomes are the components of cells that read RNA and build proteins. Without the ribosome, the chemistry of life would still be catalyzed by raw RNA. And yet the origin […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
A Small Polymerase Ribozyme That Can Synthesize Itself And Its Complementary Strand
The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life.