Figure 4

Abiotic generation of the first catalytic RNA molecule. The generation of ssRNA as a catalytic molecule can be accomplished by the partial melting of a double-stranded RNA helix, followed by the hybridization of RNA oligonucleotides to the resulting ssRNA strand upon lowering of the temperature. The hybridized oligonucleotides are then be annealed by a slow abiotic ligation process, similar to the one that is proposed in Figure 2 in the generation of dsRNA. The partial melting of the dsRNA, the rehybridization, and the release of the ssRNA can be accomplished by an oscillation in temperature.