Trying to answer the fundamental question of how life emerged on earth can lead to very basic principals of
biochemical reactions and will help to understand how life-forms develop. Much evidence drawn from
geochemical and biochemical investigations emphasize that early primitive life-forms have not evolved in open
water but on mineral surfaces. The ubiquitous mineral iron sulfide plays an important role in a far-reaching theory
of the chemoautotrophic origin of life. Its positively charged surface is able to bind negatively charged organic
compounds, bringing them in close vicinity to each other, thus, yielding a particular reactivity. Some principal,
possibly prebiotic reactions on iron sulfide surfaces under very likely conditions prevailed on the primordial world
have been shown. One crucial question of how life emerged is the origin of the recent genetic code based on DNA
(deoxyribonucleic acid - the 2`-deoxidized form of ribonucleic acid), the translation of DNA to RNA and its
interpretation through a translatory step to peptides and proteins. Based on enzyme-like catalytic properties and its
function as an "information storage system", the "RNA-world" hypothesis of Leslie Orgel suggests that RNA is the
ancestor molecule of DNA. With our work we want to study whether iron sulfide is a link between these two
"worlds" - the hypothetical ancient RNA and the present "DNA world". It will be tested whether the reduction
potential of freshly precipitated iron sulfide with its unique surface properties is sufficient to transform RNA to
DNA. These experiments will provide very fundamental insights into the construction principals of the living
world.