626632 external_news 1569276093 1569277790 Molecules that combine elements of RNA and DNA, so-called chimeric molecules, may have been an important step in the emergence of life on Earth from the primordial soup that existed billions of years ago, according to a study published yesterday (September 16) in Nature Chemistry. The work came out of research exploring the transition from RNA-based lifeforms to the DNA-based life that is ubiquitous today. Chimeric RNA-DNA molecules have some advantages that might make them better candidates than pure RNA for the first reproducing molecules. “There are times when we have mixtures, rather than just the isolated reactants that people typically use, and we get better results,” Nicholas Hud, a chemist at Georgia Tech who was not involved in the new study, tells Quanta. When mixtures are taken into consideration, the emergence of life on Earth in some ways “is not as hard as we might think it is.”

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