title: A replicator was not involved in the origin of life.
abstract: Many scientific theories of the origin of life suggest that life began with the spontaneous formation of a replicator (a self-copying organic polymer) within an unorganized chemical mixture, or "soup." A profound difficulty exists, however, with the idea of RNA, or any other replicator, at the start of life. Existing replicators can serve as templates for the synthesis of additional copies of themselves, but this device cannot be used for the preparation of the very first such molecule, which must arise spontaneously from an unorganized mixture. The formation of an information-bearing homopolymer through undirected chemical synthesis appears very improbable. The difficulties involved in such a synthesis are illustrated by considering the prospects for the assembly of a polypeptide of L-alpha-amino acids, based on the contents of the Murchison meteorite as an example of a mixture of abiotic origin. In that mixture, potential replicator components would be accompanied by a host of interfering substances, which include chain terminators (simple carboxylic acids and amines), branch-formers, D-amino acids, and many classes of substances for which incorporation would disrupt the necessary structural regularity of the replicator. Laboratory experiments dealing with the nonenzymatic synthesis of biopolymers have not addressed the specificity problem. The possibility that formation of the first replicator took place through a very improbable event cannot be excluded, but greater attention should be given to metabolism-first theories, which avoid this difficulty.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, New York University, NY 10003, USA. rs2@is2.nyu.edu
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shapiro
mesh_terms: D001704:Biopolymers; D019418:Evolution, Chemical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D000069497:Origin of Life; D010455:Peptides; D012313:RNA
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D010455:Peptides; D012313:RNA