First direct evidence of 'key ingredient' for first life on Earth identified

Scientists have discovered the first direct experimental evidence showing the "key ingredient" at the dawn of life on Earth.

Scientists from the UNC School of Medicine provide the first direct experimental evidence for how primordial proteins developed the ability to accelerate the central chemical reaction necessary to synthesize proteins and thus allow life to arise not long after Earth was created.

This finding provides another insight into the dramatic inventions nature made as prebiotic chemistry evolved into life billions of years ago.

The latest paper provided evidence that the two major superfamilies of enzymes that translate the genetic code in modern biology evolved from opposite strands of the same remarkable ancestral gene.

Charles Carter, PhD, professor of biochemistry and biophysics, said this finding has opened up the field somewhat in the search for how life on Earth began.

The study is published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.