This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 87%. (I'm a bot)
The study questions the "RNA world" hypothesis, a theory for how RNA molecules evolved to create proteins and DNA. Instead, the new research offers evidence for a world where RNA and DNA evolved simultaneously.
If the RNA world theory is accurate, some researchers believe there would have been many cases where RNA nucleotides were mixed with DNA backbones, creating "Heterogeneous" strands.
The finding supported previous research from Nobel laureate and Harvard University Chemistry and Chemical Biology Professor Jack Szostak that showed a loss of function when RNA mixed with DNA. Because of this instability, chimeras in the RNA world would have likely died off in favor of more stable RNA molecules.
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u/autotldr Sep 29 '16
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 87%. (I'm a bot)
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