Skip to main content

The RNA World at Thirty: A Look Back with its Author

Journal of Molecular Evolution volume 83, pages 169–175 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Thirty years ago, molecular biologist Walter Gilbert published his RNA world hypothesis, which posited that early in evolution living systems were composed entirely of RNA. Proposed in the immediate wake of the discovery that certain RNA molecules were capable of catalyzing biological reactions, the hypothesis ascribed both of life’s essential functions, namely carrying information and catalysis—respectively, performed by DNA and proteins in most modern life systems—to RNA, which were labeled as ribozymes. In the years since its inception, the RNA world has been greeted with equal parts enthusiasm and opposition from the origins of life research community, of which Gilbert neither was, nor really became, a part. For this special historical issue of the Journal of Molecular Evolution, Gilbert agreed to revisit his hypothesis and share his memories about the theory’s origins and his insights into its fate in the years since he first published his idea.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

43,34 €

Price includes VAT (Finland)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Notes

  1. LUCA is the acronym for the Last Universal Common Ancestor, a term first coined in 1996 by a group of origins of life researchers at a meeting, “The Last Common Ancestor, and beyond” at Treilles Foundation in France (see EMorel 2013).

References

  • About article types: authors and referees @ npg (n.d.). http://www.nature.com/authors/author_resources/article_types.html. Accessed 23 May 2016

  • Bernhardt HS (2012) The RNA world hypothesis: the worst theory of the early evolution of life (except for all the others). Biol Direct 7(1):1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Church GM, Gilbert W (1984) Genomic sequencing. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 81(7):1991–1995

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Crick F (1966) The genetic code—yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 31:3–9

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crick F (1968) The origin of the genetic code. J Mol Biol 38:367–379

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eigen M (1971) Selforganization of matter and the evolution of biological macromolecules. Naturwissenschaften 58(10):465–523

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eigen M, Gardiner R, Schuster P, Winkler-Oswatitsch R (1981) The origin of genetic information. Sci Am 244:88–118

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • EMorel (2013) LUCA, ten years after | Les Treilles Foundation. http://www.les-treilles.com/luca-ten-years-after-2/. Accessed 15 June 2016

  • Fry I (2006) The origins of research into the origins of life. Endeavour 30(1):24–28

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert W (1978) Why genes in pieces? Nature 271(5645):501

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert W (1980) Nobel lecture: DNA sequencing and gene structure. In: Forsn S (ed) Nobel lectures, chemistry 1971–1980. World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, pp 408–426. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1980/gilbert-lecture.html. Accessed 13 Sept 2016

  • Gilbert W (1986) The RNA world. Nature 319:618

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert W, De Souza SJ (1999) Introns and the RNA world. Cold Spring Harb Monogr Arch 37:221–231

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guerrier-Takada C, Gardiner K, Marsh T, Pace N, Altman S (1983) The RNA moiety of ribonuclease P is the catalytic subunit of the enzyme. Cell 35(3):849–857

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jay DG, Gilbert W (1987) Basic protein enhances the incorporation of DNA into lipid vesicles: model for the formation of primordial cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 84(7):1978–1980

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Jeffares DC, Poole AM, Penny D (1998) Relics from the RNA world. J Mol Evol 46(1):18–36

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kamminga H (1980) Studies in the history of ideas on the origin of life. PhD, University of London

  • Kamminga H (1988) Historical perspective: the problem of the origin of life in the context of developments in biology. Orig Life Evol Biosph 18(1):1–11

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kruger K, Grabowski PJ, Zaug AJ, Sands J, Gottschling DE, Cech TR (1982) Self-splicing RNA: autoexcision and autocyclization of the ribosomal RNA intervening sequence of Tetrahymena. Cell 31(1):147–157

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kurland CG (2010) The RNA dreamtime. BioEssays 32(10):866–871

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lazcano A (2012) The biochemical origins of the RNA world: from zymonucleic acid to ribozymes. Hist Philos Life Sci 34(3):407–424

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lehman N (2015) The RNA world: 4,000,000,050 years old. Life 5(4):1583–1586

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lomedico P, Rosenthal N, Efstratiadis A, Gilbert W, Kolodner R, Tizard R (1979) The structure and evolution of the two nonallelic rat preproinsulin genes. Cell 18(2):545–558

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lonberg N, Gilbert W (1985) Intron/exon structure of the chicken pyruvate kinase gene. Cell 40(1):81–90

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maxam AM, Gilbert W (1977) A new method for sequencing DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 74(2):560–564

    CAS  Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Maxam AM, Gilbert W (1980) Sequencing end-labeled DNA with base-specific chemical cleavages. Methods Enzymol 65(1):499–560

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Muller HJ (1922) Variation due to change in the individual gene. Am Nat 56:32–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muller HJ (1947) Pilgrim Trust lecture: the gene. Proc R Soc Lond B 134(874):1–37

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neveu M, Kim H-J, Benner SA (2013) The “Strong” RNA world hypothesis: fifty years old. Astrobiology 13(4):391–403

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Orgel LE (1968) Evolution of the genetic apparatus. J Mol Biol 38(3):381–393

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Orgel LE, Crick F (1993) Anticipating an RNA world, some past speculations on the origin of life: Where are they today? FASEB J 7:238–239

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pace NR, Marsh TL (1985) RNA catalysis and the origin of life. Orig Life Evol Biosph 16(2):97–116

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perler F, Efstratiadis A, Lomedico P, Gilbert W, Kolodner R, Dodgson J (1980) The evolution of genes: the chicken preproinsulin gene. Cell 20(2):555–566

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Podolsky S (1996) The role of the virus in origin-of-life theorizing. J Hist Biol 29(1):79–126

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ricardo A, Szostak JW (2009) Origin of life on earth. Sci Am 301(3):54–61

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rich A (1962) On the problems of evolution and biochemical information transfer. In: Kasha M, Pullman B (eds) Horizons in biochemistry: Albert Szent–Györgyi dedicatory volume. Academic, New York, pp 103–126

  • Sankaran N (2012) How the discovery of ribozymes cast RNA in the roles of both chicken and egg in origin-of-life theories. Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci 43(4):741–750

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schramm G, Grötsch H, Pollmann W (1962) Non-enzymatic synthesis of polysaccharides, nucleosides and nucleic acids and the origin of self-reproducing systems. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 1(1):1–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Origins of the RNA World (2016) Library of congress. [Webcast]. https://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=7353. Accessed 23 Sept 2016

  • Troland L (1916) The enzyme theory of life. Clevel Med J 15:377–385

    Google Scholar 

  • Woese CR (1967) The evolution of the genetic code. In: The genetic code: the molecular basis for genetic expression. Harper and Row, New York, pp 179–195

  • Zaug AJ, Cech TR (1986) The intervening sequence RNA of Tetrahymena is an enzyme. Science 231(4737):470–475

    CAS  Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This list of people to thank for bringing this paper to fruition is long, but must begin with Prof. Wally Gilbert who very generously shared a Sunday talking with me about the RNA World and sharing his art as well. The second person is Dr. Antonio Lazcano who was kind enough to forward the call for papers for this special historical issue based on a few email exchanges due to which he learned of my interest in the history of the RNA World. Profuse thanks also to my international network of friends with interests in this area, many of whom I have only met virtually: notably Anthony Poole, Scott Podolsky, and Susie Fisher for their input and insights on various drafts of this paper, and Dhananjay Bambah-Mukku for keeping me in touch with the academic world.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. History of Science, 516, 1st Cross Road, Koramangala 4th Block, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560034, India

    Neeraja Sankaran

Authors
  1. Neeraja Sankaran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Neeraja Sankaran.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sankaran, N. The RNA World at Thirty: A Look Back with its Author. J Mol Evol 83, 169–175 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-016-9767-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-016-9767-3

Keywords

  • RNA world hypothesis
  • Walter Gilbert
  • Origins of life
  • Ribozymes
  • History of science