Billions of years ago, related molecules may have created a rudimentary form of genetic information that eventually led to the evolution of RNA and life itself, the researchers say. Although it’s likely to be difficult, if not impossible, to prove whether similar proto-RNAs were present at the dawn of life, the researchers are working to see if the proto-RNAs can indeed faithfully encode information and evolve toward RNA.

Researchers have toyed with the idea of proto-RNA for decades and even come up with potential chemical candidates. One such set of proto-RNAs involves two chemicals called cyanuric acid (CA) and triaminopyrimidine (TAP). TAP comes from a family of compounds known as pyrimidines, as do the RNA bases C and U. CA, meanwhile, is a close pyrimidine relative. Previous research had shown that when CA and TAP were put in an organic solvent, groups of three CAs and three TAPs would spontaneously form ringlike structures called rosettes. These rosettes would then stack atop one another to form long chains.

Unfortunately, in water CA and TAP clump together in large ribbons and sheets and quickly fall out of solution, making it hard to conceive of how these proto-RNAs could have stored genetic information in the earliest stages of life.

Now, however, Hud and his colleagues at Georgia Tech and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Barcelona, Spain, have solved this solvent problem, Science Now reports. …

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