John Sutherland
Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge

"Origins of the RNAProtein World – Lost in Translation?"
The RNAprotein double act at the heart of biology raises several intriguing origins questions that can be addressed by prebiotic chemistry. Beyond the obvious ‘which came first?’, one can also wonder about the extent to which chemistry shaped the process of translation according to the genetic code. In this lecture I will describe some mixed hydrogen cyanidehydrogen sulfide chemistry that produces nucleotides and amino acids. Some degree of control is necessary for this ‘cyanosulfidic’ chemistry to proceed most efficiently and ways in which environmental factors could exercise this control will be suggested. Synergies in the assembly of nucleotide and amino acid building blocks into higher order structures will then be discussed as will experimental hints of a previously proposed second genetic code. Finally, it will be shown how the strength of codonanticodon binding likely influenced the partial initial assignment of the primary genetic code.

The Origins of Life Speaker Series explores the conditions and circumstances that led to the diversity of life on Earth. The interdisciplinary series will connect the formation of planets, the evolution of early Earth, and the complex chemistry and delivery of the fundamental organic molecules that serve as the building blocks of early life, and how they can establish complex, selfreplicating systems of cells and genetic material.

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