Archaea, a domain of microorganisms found in diverse environments including the human microbiome, represent the closest known prokaryotic relatives of eukaryotes.
RNA
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Intelligence & Language, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Status Report
Can The Timing Of The Origin Of Life Be Inferred From Trends In The Growth Of Organismal Complexity?
The origin of life embodies two fundamental questions: how and when did life begin? It is commonly conjectured that life began on Earth around 4 billion years ago.
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Origins Of Life: Chemistry And Evolution
Direct chemical synthesis and chemical evolution are conceptually different models for the prebiotic origin of RNA and other biopolymers. These models generate distinct predictions and motivate different experimental approaches.
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Emergence Of Diverse Ligase Reactivities From A Single RNA Evolution Experiment
RNA-catalyzed assembly of RNA strands was one of the most essential enzymatic functions in a primordial RNA-based biology.
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
All Life Copies DNA Unambiguously Into Proteins. Archaea May Be The Exception.
The beauty of the DNA code is that organisms interpret it unambiguously. Each three-letter nucleotide sequence, or codon, in a gene codes for a unique amino acid that’s added to […]
Posted inAnalog Studies, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release
Yeast Survives Martian Conditions
Any life on Mars in the past, present, or future would have to contend with challenging conditions including, among others, shock waves from meteorite impacts and soil perchlorates—highly oxidizing salts […]
Posted inBiophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Nanotechnology & SynBio, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Simultaneous Synthesis Of All 21 Types Of tRNA In Vitro
Collaborative research by the University of Tokyo and RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research has led to the development of a new method for simultaneously synthesizing all transfer RNA (tRNA) […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Origin Of Life Breakthrough: How RNA Might Have Started To Make Proteins On Early Earth
Chemists at UCL have shown how two of biology’s most fundamental ingredients, RNA (ribonucleic acid) and amino acids, could have spontaneously joined together at the origin of life four billion […]
Posted inBiochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report
Mellitic Acid as a Stable Abiotic Precursor for Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation: An RNA-Independent Pathway for Prebiotic Compartmentalization
Apart from playing the well-recognized roles in the self-assembly of intracellular machinery liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) constitutes a hypothetical, yet compelling scenario for prebiotic compartmentalization.
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Status Report
Obelisks: Newly-Discovered Viroid-like Colonists Of Human Microbiomes
Editor’s note: researchers were surprised recently when an unexpected and rather novel biological structure was found inside the cells of the human gut. Nicknamed “obelisks” due to their shape, these […]