Oligomerization of Nucleic Acids and Peptides under the Primitive Earth Conditions

Abstract

Question how life originated on the primitive earth is still a frontier of science. Nowadays, primitive life-like system is mostly considered to have emerged by chemical evolution on the Earth although some scientists are evaluating the possibility of panspermia hypothesis [1-3]. External and internal energies from the earth, such as cosmic rays, ultra violet radiation, meteorite impacts, volcanic eruption, submarine hydrothermal vent system, etc. resulted in organic molecules from inorganic materials, such as primitive atmospheric gas, minerals, materials solved in the ocean. Organic molecules were polymerized and finally resulted in several biological functions. Complex mixtures of the organic molecules should have evolved to primitive life-like systems. By the Miller-Urey experiment at 1953, a scenario from simple molecules to organic molecules in a simulated primitive atmosphere – ocean system was evaluated for the first time [4]. After the Miller-Urey experiment, the origin of life problem became as a scientific subject and a number of simulation experiments were carried out to elucidate how life-like system was originated on this planet [5-7].