A Chicken-or-Egg Mystery on Early Life May Be Solved

Lab experiment shows how simple chemistry may have bridged gap between RNA, protein synthesis
Posted Aug 28, 2025 9:30 AM CDT
How Simple Chemistry May Have Sparked Life on Earth
A 3D rendering of RNA and protein.   (Getty Images/Jian Fan)

A new study published this week in Nature offers potential answers to a long-standing question in biology: How did the first proteins form on Earth, setting the stage for life? Researchers at University College London, led by chemist Matthew Powner, have demonstrated in the lab that simple chemistry could have bridged the gap between RNA and protein synthesis in the planet's early years.

Proteins play a crucial role in life, participating in everything from building bones to fighting infections. Today, proteins are made when amino acids are assembled according to instructions from nucleic acids like DNA and RNA. But this system requires enzymes, which are themselves proteins, creating a chicken-or-egg dilemma about how the process could have started before life existed.

Powner's team tried to re-create earlier conditions, using only water, amino acids, RNA, and a class of sulfur-containing molecules called thiols. They found that when an amino acid is chemically "activated" and exposed to thiols, the amino acid can be transferred to RNA without the help of existing proteins. This reaction, the team suggests, could have occurred on early Earth, especially in small bodies of water, where concentrations of the required chemicals would be high enough.

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Powner tells the Washington Post that this process is "almost inevitable" under the right conditions, indicating a plausible route for protein formation before the evolution of complex life. Aaron Goldman, a biologist not involved in the study, described the findings as a meaningful step toward understanding the earliest precursors to protein synthesis, although many questions remain about what came before. "There are numerous problems to overcome before we can fully elucidate the origin of life, but the most challenging and exciting remains the origins of protein synthesis," Powner says in a release.

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