Biology: The origin and History of Life

The Origin and History of Life

• Life's origin remains a mystery
• Life arose on earth about 4 billion years ago
• Miller Experiment-simulated early Earth's atmosphere; simple molecules combined into organic compounds, like amino acids
• Clay and Iron Pyrite-catalyst for the first synthesized reactions
• -uracils line with sugar phosphate bonds
• -form hydrogen bonds with adenines
• -clay template releases double strand

The Origin and History of Life cont.

• Once a self replicating molecule like RNA formed, natural selection took over
• -stable molecules that could self-replicate became more common

The First Gene

• -first genetic material and enzymes may have both been RNA
• -catalyst for own replication
• DNA---RNA---POLYPEPTIDES---PROTEIN
• RNA-important for transcription and translation to polypeptides

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