What can the evolution of the ribosome tell us about the origin of translation?

[1oldman2]

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...g-thing-is-still-alive-inside-each-one-of-us/
"We can stop <<profanity deleted>> about the origin of life," says Loren Williams, a biochemist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. "We can see it."

 

[256bits]

Some more insight,
https://cos.gatech.edu/hg/item/575811
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribosome

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Here's the associated scientific publication:
Petrov et al. 2017 History of the ribosome and the origin of translation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112: 15396 doi:10.1073/pnas.1509761112
Abstract:

We present a molecular-level model for the origin and evolution of the translation system, using a 3D comparative method. In this model, the ribosome evolved by accretion, recursively adding expansion segments, iteratively growing, subsuming, and freezing the rRNA. Functions of expansion segments in the ancestral ribosome are assigned by correspondence with their functions in the extant ribosome. The model explains the evolution of the large ribosomal subunit, the small ribosomal subunit, tRNA, and mRNA. Prokaryotic ribosomes evolved in six phases, sequentially acquiring capabilities for RNA folding, catalysis, subunit association, correlated evolution, decoding, energy-driven translocation, and surface proteinization. Two additional phases exclusive to eukaryotes led to tentacle-like rRNA expansions. In this model, ribosomal proteinization was a driving force for the broad adoption of proteins in other biological processes. The exit tunnel was clearly a central theme of all phases of ribosomal evolution and was continuously extended and rigidified. In the primitive noncoding ribosome, proto-mRNA and the small ribosomal subunit acted as cofactors, positioning the activated ends of tRNAs within the peptidyl transferase center. This association linked the evolution of the large and small ribosomal subunits, proto-mRNA, and tRNA.