# @science on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DOHTmeNE4kX
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/34058352-science-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/9f4746af9e.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-09-02T21:00:25.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Science 🧬 (@science) — https://gondola.cc/science

## Caption

Life’s origin has long hinged on a chicken-and-egg riddle: proteins do nearly everything in cells, but ribosomes make proteins using RNA instructions. A new Nature study offers a concrete first move in that dance, showing that under simple, early-Earth-like conditions, amino acids can attach to RNA in water and begin forming the peptide links that underpin proteins, no ribosome required.⁠
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The team at University College London activated amino acids as thioesters using pantetheine, a sulfur-bearing molecule tied to modern metabolism. Those activated amino acids spontaneously and selectively transferred onto strands of RNA at neutral pH, creating aminoacyl-RNA and then short peptide bonds. In doing so, the chemistry unites two classic origin-of-life ideas: an “RNA world,” where RNA stores and processes information, and a “thioester world,” where high-energy thioesters power fledgling metabolism.⁠
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Crucially, this works in plain water and likely in places where small ponds or lakes could concentrate ingredients, settings that sidestep the dilution problem expected in primordial oceans. The researchers tracked these tiny steps with tools like magnetic resonance techniques and mass spectrometry, and they’ve previously shown pantetheine can plausibly arise under prebiotic conditions. Once amino acids were loaded onto RNA, the system stitched them into peptides, offering a credible path from informational polymers to functional ones.⁠
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Important caveats remain: early peptides born this way are random, not yet governed by a genetic code. The next frontier is specificity, how particular RNA sequences preferentially bind certain amino acids to seed coding rules. Still, this work supplies a missing link between instruction and action, transforming an abstract paradox into testable chemistry and narrowing the gap between geochemistry and biology.⁠
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#science #originoflife #rna #proteins #chemistry #prebiotic #thioester #astrobiology #naturepaper #ucl #biochemistry⁠
Source: s41586-025-09388-y

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## Tags

thioester, biochemistry, science, prebiotic, astrobiology, chemistry, ucl, proteins, rna, originoflife, naturepaper

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