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The prevailing idea among molecular biologists is that RNA came first, in an "RNA world".

There are several arguments used to support this idea. One is that DNA needs RNA in order to replicate, but RNA can replicate itself. Also RNA has catalytic properties; DNA does not. The first nucleic acid must have been able to replicate itself and to catalyze the process.

Another line of evidence involves the way that most cells synthesize the components of the two nucleic acids. The nucleotides of RNA (ribonucleotides) are assembled from simpler molecules, but those of DNA are produced by modification of ribonucleotides (the sugar of the ribonucleotide, ribose, is reduced to form deoxyribose, and if the base in the nucleotide is uracil it is methylated to form thymine).

Q: Was it DNA or RNA come first?
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The prevailing idea among molecular biologists is that RNA came first, in an "RNA world".

There are several arguments used to support this idea. One is that DNA needs RNA in order to replicate, but RNA can replicate itself. Also RNA has catalytic properties; DNA does not. The first nucleic acid must have been able to replicate itself and to catalyze the process.

Another line of evidence involves the way that most cells synthesize the components of the two nucleic acids. The nucleotides of RNA (ribonucleotides) are assembled from simpler molecules, but those of DNA are produced by modification of ribonucleotides (the sugar of the ribonucleotide, ribose, is reduced to form deoxyribose, and if the base in the nucleotide is uracil it is methylated to form thymine).

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RNA doesn't need proteins nor does it need DNA.

RNA probably came first. And it is known that RNA can form peptide bonds which can make proteins.

DNA would have come later.

They don't need each other, from an evolutionary standpoint. Modern DNA and RNA and proteins are interlocked, but earlier forms clearly weren't.

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It's not possible to say based on our current knowledge. It is likely that the earliest forms of life replicated using RNA rather than DNA.

In glass vessels in the Lab we have, not all that easily, combined substances that produced Rna particles capable of, if not self-replication, then the replication of other Rna strands in the same solution.

With DNA being as fragile as a strand of fiberglass, and as such it cannot exist without being wound around histone proteins, this shows that Rna Way came first.

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Nucleotides do not have DNA or RNA. DNA and RNA are composed of nucleotides.

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The process is called transcription. RNA polymerase enzyme will synthesize RNA (mRNA) from DNA sequences and this is the first step in gene expression.

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