RNA networks at the origins of life

Abstract

The origin of life has often been viewed as the advent of a single self-replicating molecular species, such as RNA. We propose a somewhat different approach in that a network of co-operating molecules could have kick-started life. This view has both theoretical and experimental support. The foundations for life, as we understand it on our planet, began some 4.5 billion years ago with the formation of the Earth1 and by 4.0 billion years ago evidence for the presence of life existed. Within that timeframe, physical and chemical processes would have produced increasingly more complex interactions, moving from simple inorganic molecules to biopolymers capable of replication and variation. In order to answer the question of how life originated and to even understand what life is, empirical proof-ofconcept simple abiotic pathways demonstrating these transitions are needed. In this article, we discuss how networks of molecules, rather than single replicating molecular species, is an emerging view that may unlock some longstanding problems in the origins field.