Zurich researchers are on the trail of the origin of life
Published: Monday, Nov 27th 2023, 11:40
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Swiss researchers have found new clues to the origin of life. Protein-like aggregates, known as amyloids, could have played a role in the origin of life, according to a new study.
A research team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) has shown that amyloids can bind to RNA and DNA molecules and thereby stabilize them, as the university announced on Monday. The corresponding study was published in the "Journal of the American Chemical Society".
How life emerged from inanimate matter three to four billion years ago has not yet been clarified in research. Because evolution during this period has erased the traces that lead back to the origins of life, science has no choice but to formulate hypotheses and justify them with experimental data, the researchers explained in the press release.
Stability in the primordial soup
The research team at ETH Zurich led by Roland Riek has been pursuing the idea for years that amyloids could have played a role in this transition from matter to life. The researchers see the finding that amyloids can bind genetic material to themselves as an indication of this.
It is important to note that DNA and RNA gain stability when they are bound to amyloids. As the biochemical molecules were highly diluted in the primordial soup from which life ultimately emerged, this process is advantageous. Amyloids therefore have the potential to increase the local concentration and order of RNA and DNA building blocks in an otherwise diluted, disordered system.
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