Scientists announce a breakthrough in determining life's origin on Earth—and maybe Mars

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The ribonucleic acid that formed on basalt lava glass was likely the first genetic material for life. 4.35 billion years ago, glass was plentiful. Today, similar basalts of this antiquity can be found on Mars.

Steven Benner, a co-author of the study, said that communities studying the origins of life have differed in recent years.

Benner explained that one community re-visits classical questions with complex chemical schemes. Their work can be found in journals such as Nature and Science. It can't possibly account for how life started on Earth because of the complexity of this chemistry.

The Foundation study is simpler than the other one. The study shows that long RNA molecule form when nucleoside triphosphates are not present.

Stephen Mojzsis is an Earth scientist who also participated in the study. molten basaltic lava was the source of the basalt glass after the Moon formed. Water was evaporated to give dry land.

The same impacts gave nickel, which is found in lava glass. The formation of those triphosphates is controlled by Borate.

The impactors that formed the glass reduced the atmosphere. RNA bases are formed in such environments. The team had previously shown that there is a simple reaction between ribosephosphate andRNA bases.

This model is simple. It can be tested by high school students in chemistry class. You need to mix the ingredients and wait for a few days.

There are many paradoxes in makingRNA in a path that moves all of the way from simple organic molecule to the firstRNA. Benner said that borate manages the formation of ribose. The path begins from simple sugars that formed in the atmosphere above Earth. The organic minerals were created by the volcanic sulfur dioxide that rained down.

This work completes the path that leads to the creation of RNA from small organic Molecules that were present on the Early Earth. A single geological model can move from one and two carbon molecule to one and two carbon molecule.

Benner cautions that important questions are still unanswered. All of the building blocks have the same shape, but we don't know how it happened. The linkages between the nucleotides can be different in basaltic glass. This is not known.

The same minerals, glasses, and impacts were present on Mars during that time period. Most of the rocks on Earth were buried more than 4 billion years ago. Rocks from a certain time are on the surface of Mars. All of the needed rocks have been found.

Benner said that if life emerged on Earth via this path, it would also emerge on Mars. It's even more important to find life on Mars as soon as possible.

More information: Craig A. Jerome et al, Catalytic Synthesis of Polyribonucleic Acid on Prebiotic Rock Glasses, Astrobiology (2022). DOI: 10.1089/ast.2022.0027

The Prebiotic stereoselective synthesis of purine and noncanonical pyrimidine nucleotide was presented. 10.1073/pnas.1710778 114 is a book.

A Prebiotic Synthesis of Pyrimidine and Purine Ribonucleotides is a paper by the authors. The document is titled "Ast.2018.1935."

Provided by Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution