By James Pero For Dailymail.com
Published: 21:01 BST, 3 April 2019 | Updated: 21:01 BST, 3 April 2019
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A long-held and popular theory of the precursor to cellular life could be turned upside down, as researchers have claimed in a new study that RNA and DNA may have originally existed together.
Their claims clash with a widely accepted theory that cellular lifeforms as we know them developed from RNA — previously considered to be the building block to DNA.
The findings were published by researchers at Scripps in the journal Nature Chemistry.
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A new discovery about RNA shows that the origins of life cellular life as we know them may have a different background. Researchers say RNA and DNA may have existed together
'These new findings suggest that it may not be reasonable for chemists to be so heavily guided by the RNA World hypothesis in investigating the origins of life on Earth,' said co-principal investigator Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, PhD, associate professor of chemistry at Scripps Research.
If true, the
