STABILITY OF THE FIRST MOLECULES

THE origins of life remain a major mystery.

How were complex molecules able to form and remain intact for prolonged periods without disintegrating? A team at ORIGINS, a Munich-based Cluster of Excellence, has demonstrated a mechanism that could have enabled the first RNA molecules to stabilise in the primordial soup.

When two RNA strands combine, their stability and lifespan increase significantly.

In all likelihood, life on Earth began in water, perhaps in a tide pool that was cut off from seawater at low tide but flooded by waves at high tide.

Over billions of years, complex molecules like DNA, RNA and proteins formed in this setting before, ultimately, the first cells emerged.

To date, however, nobody has been able to explain exactly how this happened. "We know which molecules existed on the early Earth," says Job Boekhoven, Professor of Supramolecular Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

"The question is: Can we use this to replicate the origins of life in the lab?" The team led by Boekhoven at the ORIGINS Cluster of Excellence is primarily interested in RNA. "RNA is a fascinating molecule," says Boekhoven. "It can store information and also catalyse biochemical reactions." Scientists, therefore, believe that RNA must have been the first of all complex molecules to form.