Life’s First Molecule Was Protein, Not RNA, New Model Suggests
Life’s First Molecule Was Protein, Not RNA, New Model Suggests
Which mattered first at the dawn of life: proteins or nucleic acids? Proteins may have had the edge if a theorized process let them grow long enough to become self-replicating catalysts.
Some of my co-workers study the origin of life, and part of their work focuses on pre-biotic peptide synthesis.
I am convinced that nucleotides appeared well before protein synthesis, and that protein synthesis appears at a mature stage during life's evolution, likely catalyzed by ribozymes... So I don't think that pre-biotic peptide synthesis is relevant for the origin of life!
I am making an effort to study the alternative hypotheses in which life has a proteomic origin. My opinion is still unchanged, but I found this article interesting because at least it proposes a somewhat viable model.
Do you have any opinions about the origin of life?