The postulate of an RNA world, wherein RNA plays both the role of an informational carrier as well as the role of a catalyst has come to be widely accepted. In contrast, the emergence of RNA from potentially natural pathways is still open to debate, which has led to the hypothesis that simpler, transient informational oligomers that are more compatible with potentially pre-biological pathways could have prepared the trail for the appearance of RNA. We have been investigating the base-pairing behavior of a spectrum of such potentially �primitive� oligomers. The presentation will report on progress from recent investigations on acyclic oligomers and on how these results provide feedback into our understanding of the structure/base-pairing relationship of RNA (and DNA).

Mapping the landscape of potentially primordial informational oligomers

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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