The general notion of an “RNA world” is that, in the early development of life on the Earth,
genetic continuity was assured by the replication of RNA, and RNA molecules were the chief …

The aim of this article is to provide the reader with an overview of the different possible
scenarios for the emergence of life, to critically assess them and, according to the …

This Perspective focuses on RNA in biological and nonbiological compartments resulting
from liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS), with an emphasis on origins of life. In extant …

The synthetic pathways of life's building blocks are envisaged to be through a series of
complex prebiotic reactions and processes. However, the strategy to compartmentalize and …

Hypotheses of the origins of RNA and DNA are generally centred on the prebiotic synthesis
of a pristine system (pre-RNA or RNA), which gives rise to its descendent. However, a lack of …

RNA-catalyzed RNA replication is widely considered a key step in the emergence of life's
first genetic system. However, RNA replication can be impeded by the extraordinary stability …

The field of prebiotic chemistry has been dedicated over decades to finding abiotic routes
towards the molecular components of life. There is nowadays a handful of prebiotically …

A key challenge in origin-of-life studies is understanding the environmental conditions on
early Earth under which abiogenesis occurred. While some constraints do exist (eg, zircon …

How life emerged from inanimate matter is one of the most intriguing questions posed to
modern science. Central to this research are experimental attempts to build systems capable …

The non‐enzymatic replication of the primordial genetic material is thought to have enabled
the evolution of early forms of RNA‐based life. However, the replication of oligonucleotides …