The Coevolution of Biomolecules and Prebiotic Information Systems in the Origin of Life: A Visualization Model for Assembling the First Gene

Abstract

Prebiotic information systems exist in three forms: analog, hybrid, and digital. The Analog Information System (AIS), manifested early in abiogenesis, was expressed in the chiral selection, nucleotide formation, self-assembly, polymerization, encapsulation of polymers, and division of protocells. It created noncoding RNAs by polymerizing nucleotides that gave rise to the Hybrid Information System (HIS). The HIS employed different species of noncoding RNAs, such as ribozymes, pre-tRNA and tRNA, ribosomes, and functional enzymes, including bridge peptides, pre-aaRS, and aaRS (aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase). Some of these hybrid components build the translation machinery step-by-step. The HIS ushered in the Digital Information System (DIS), where tRNA molecules become molecular architects for designing mRNAs step-by-step, employing their two distinct genetic codes. First, they created codons of mRNA by the base pair interaction (anticodon–codon mapping). Secondly, each charged tRNA transferred its amino acid information to the corresponding codon (codon–amino acid mapping), facilitated by an aaRS enzyme. With the advent of encoded mRNA molecules, the first genes emerged before DNA. With the genetic memory residing in the digital sequences of mRNA, a mapping mechanism was developed between each codon and its cognate amino acid. As more and more codons ‘remembered’ their respective amino acids, this mapping system developed the genetic code in their memory bank. We compared three kinds of biological information systems with similar types of human-made computer systems.

Enigma of Pyramidal Neurons: Chirality-Centric View on Biological Evolution. Congruence to Molecular, Cellular, Physiological, Cognitive, and Psychological Functions

“…In turn, cell chirality is mediated by the prevalent chirality of the protein-enzyme complex. Molecular and cellular chirality interplay constitutes a stereospecific ground for the mixed analog-digital information procession in biological systems [57,58]. Molecular homochirality (more precisely, prevalent molecular chirality), feeding the roots of the evolutionary tree, pre-determines its branching structure and behavior of each individual sub-division (Figure 1) fall into two categories.…”

Did organs precede organisms in the dawn of life?

“…The self-replication of vesicles with their composition of proto-organs, following graded autocatalysis, and the complexification of some of them (as well as the proto-organ interactions) by fusion processes are conceivable in this prebiotic scenario [66] . Although the vesicles containing proto-organs are still "infrabiological" lacking both genetic information and metabolism [17] [67] , those processes should lead to significant increases in system information concerning time (e.g., rates of synthesis and degradation of molecules or their aggregates), space (e.g., proximity, attractiveness, shape complementarity), energy (e.g., charge differences), and in more complex systems, control (e.g., regulation) [68] . Once self-replication began in a single or a few particular vesicles containing protoorgans, a new, strong natural selection process of the fittest primitive organisms could be initiated, with the consequence of massive extinction (abortion) of all other existing combinations of preorgans.…”

Why is Abiogenesis Such a Tough Nut to Crack?

“…In 2022, Chatterjee and Yadav [195] defined three different prebiotic information systems: analog, hybrid, and digital. They hypothesized that the Analog Information System (AIS) was manifest early in abiogenesis, was expressed in chiral selection, nucleotide formation, self-assembly, polymerization, encapsulation of polymers, and division of protocells.…”