Equilibrium and Non‐equilibrium Reaction Schemes for Prebiotic Polymerization of Ribonucleotides

Abstract The RNA World theory for the origin of life requires polymers to be generated initially by abiotic reactions. Experiments have studied polymerization of 5′‐monophosphates, 2′,3′‐cyclic phosphates, and 5′‐triphosphates. We consider theoretical models of polymerization in solution illustrating the differences between these cases. We consider (i) a basic model where all monomers undergo reversible joining and breaking; (ii) a model where …