Origin and persistence of genetic material in prebiotic habitats

Molecules which store genetic information (RNA, DNA) are central to all life on earth. The formation of these complex molecules required specific conditions, including the synthesis of precursors (nucleotides), the joining of these monomers into larger molecules (polynucleotides), their protection from degradation, and the expression of the biological potential of the informative molecule, which is its capacity to multiply and evolve. Determining how these steps occurred and how the earliest genetic molecules originated on Earth is a problem that is far from being resolved. Classical research in this field has focused on process in aqueous solution. However, it is difficult to believe that complex molecules can be obtained by random collisions in a fully aqueous environment since under these conditions, hydrolysis and not polymerization if favoured. We believed that it is crucial to consider surface organic chemistry.
As early as 1951, J.D. Bernal suggest, on the basis of thermodynamic and kinetic considerations, that mineral surfaces (specifically clay minerals) could have played an important role in the prebiotic formation of the biomolecules basic to life.
In recent years, numerous observations in different fields, from astrophysical chemistry to molecular biology, have reinforced the hypothesis of the involvement of mineral surfaces in the prebiotic origin of life.