Professor Robert Góra and Mikołaj Janicki from the Faculty of Chemistry at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology and Dr Rafał Szabla (currently Edinburgh University), a graduate of the University, took part in the research of an international group of scientists, who published the results of their cooperation in the journal Nature.

The authors suggest that the building blocks of RNA and DNA informational polymers arose on Earth at the same time, and the first information polymer was their hybrid. This is another important clue for researchers of the beginnings of life.

Scientists are also speculating that the isolation of two polymers – more stable DNA, currently used only for storing information, and RNA playing a key role in protein synthesis took place only at a later stage of the evolution of cellular organisms. In the opinion of the authors of the publication this is another step to understand how life on Earth arose and whether similar processes could take place in other planetary systems.

More: https://pwr.edu.pl/uczelnia/aktualnosci/naukowcy-z-w3-wspolautorii-publikacji-w-nature-11685.html