Very interesting paper I read it very carefully, so I have three simple questions. Some of the compounds needed to make enzymes, DNA and RNA can be found in trace amounts in comets, and in chemical reactions that attempt to simulate various models of the primordial earth. Is it possible to use the products of such experiments to allow evolution to create enzymes? Did the researchers need to purchase laboratory chemicals, and then used their advanced knowledge of chemical engineering to purify them beyond what the laboratory had already done? Here is what the researchers said they did:
DNA and RNA oligonucleotides (listed in Supplementary Table 1) were from Integrated DNA Technologies and if necessary were purified, by denaturing PAGE (8M urea, TBE). The 2 poly-T (T2, T4) and 3 poly-A (T5, T7, T8) starting sequences consist of 69 nt, containing an either 39 nt poly-A or poly-T sequence flanked by different 15 nucleotide (nt) primer binding sites on both ends (Supplementary Table 1). The sequences were designed with non-overlapping primer binding sites to avoid cross contamination from different evolution-selection experiments.
If such an experiment cannot be done without first using chemical engineering techniques to manufacture and purify the necessary compounds, used in the experiment, how can actually experimentally demonstrate that unguided organic chemistry is even capable of causing the evolution of the pure ingredients needed to synthesize enzymes in nature, at a bare minimum?