Protein-First Hypothesis : ca 1h Sidney Fox has shown that amino acids polymerize abiotically when exposed to dry heat. He suggests that once amino acids were present in the oceans, they could have collected in shallow puddles along the rocky shore line. Then, the heat of the sun could have caused them to form proteinoids, small polypeptides that have some catalytic properties. The formation of proteinoids has been simulated in the labo- ratory. When placed in water, proteinoids form microspheres (Gk. mikros, “small, little”; sphaera, “ball”), structures composed only of protein that have many properties of a cell. It’s possible that even newly formed polypeptides had enzymatic properties. Some may have been more enzymatically active than others, perhaps giving them a selective advantage. If a certain level of enzyme activity provided an advantage over others, this would have set the stage for natural selection to shape the evolution of these first organic polymers. Those that evolved to be part of the first cell or cells would have had a selective advantage over those that did not become part of a cell. Fox’s protein-first hypothesis assumes that protein enzymes arose prior to the first DNA molecule. Thus, the genes that encode proteins followed the evolution of the first polypeptides. RNA-First Hypothesis The RNA-first hypothesis suggests that only the macromolecule RNA was needed to progress toward formation of the first cell or cells. Thomas Cech and Sidney Altman shared a Nobel Prize i 1989 for their discovery that RNA can be both a substrate a: nd t enzyme. Some viruses today have RNA genes; therefore. the fi genes could have been RNA. It would seem, then, that RNA c a have red out the processes of life commonly on a thatite ane proteins. Those who support this hypothesi. re fate in “RNA world” some 4 Bya, The Evoluti ‘tulle Possible Extraterrestrial Components of RNA.” oars a may have been possible. "explores how, ai