RNA crystallization and phasing represent major bottlenecks in RNA structure
determination. Seeking to exploit antibody fragments as RNA crystallization chaperones, we …

The DIR2s RNA aptamer, a second-generation, in-vitro selected binder to dimethylindole
red (DIR), activates the fluorescence of cyanine dyes, DIR and oxazole thiazole blue (OTB) …

RNA molecular modelling is adequate to rapidly tackle the structure of RNA molecules. With
new structured RNAs constituting a central class of cellular regulators discovered every …

According to the RNA world hypothesis, self-replicating ribozymes, storing the genetic
information and being able to perform catalysis, were the constituents of the first living …

Early life presumably required polymerase ribozymes capable of replicating RNA. Known
polymerase ribozymes best approximating such replicases use as their catalytic engine an …

All models of the RNA world era invoke the presence of ribozymes that can catalyse RNA
polymerization. The class I ligase ribozyme selected in vitro 15 years ago from a pool of …

Mobile group II introns are bacterial retrotransposons thought to be evolutionary ancestors of
spliceosomal introns and retroelements in eukaryotes. They consist of a catalytically active …

Abstract Background During the RNA World, molecular populations were probably very
small and highly susceptible to the force of strong random drift. In conjunction with Muller's …

Motivation: Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a powerful approach for structural analysis of
nucleic acids, with recent high-throughput variants enabling three-dimensional RNA …

Can we look at contemporary biology and couple this with chemical insight to propose some
plausible mechanisms for the origin of life on the planet? In what follows, we examine some …