Chemical Evolution of Life on Earth
Lei Lei, Zachary Frome Burton

TL;DR
This paper explores how tRNA sequences reveal the chemical evolution of early life on Earth, showing how primitive molecules led to the first living organisms.
Contribution
The paper presents a detailed analysis of pre-life tRNA sequences and their role in the origin of life.
Findings
Pre-life tRNA sequences evolved from ligation of three 31 nt minihelices followed by internal deletions.
The D loop core was a truncated UAGCC repeat, and anticodon and T stem-loops were selected to resist ribozyme nucleases.
ACCA-Gly was a primitive adapter molecule used to synthesize polyglycine in pre-life conditions.
Abstract
Background/Objectives: The origin of genes and genetics is the story of the coevolution of translation systems and the genetic code. Remarkably, the history of the origin of life on Earth was inscribed and preserved in the sequences of tRNAs. Methods: Sequence logos demonstrate the patterning of pre-life tRNA sequences. Results: The pre-life type I and type II tRNA sequences are known to the last nucleotide with only a few ambiguities. Type I and type II tRNAs evolved from ligation of three 31 nt minihelices of highly patterned and known sequence followed by closely related 9 nt internal deletion(s) within ligated acceptor stems. The D loop 17 nt core was a truncated UAGCC repeat. The anticodon and T 17 nt stem-loop-stems are homologous sequences with 5 nt stems and 7 nt U-turn loops that were selected in pre-life to resist ribozyme nucleases and to present a 3 nt anticodon with a…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
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Taxonomy
TopicsOrigins and Evolution of Life · Astro and Planetary Science
