Question

How are self-replicating molecules, such as RNA molecules in the “RNA World” hypothesis, essential to the most popular hypotheses about the origin of life on Earth?

Answer 1

Self-replicating molecules are essential to the most popular hypotheses about the origin of life on Earth because most of the claims about the origin of life have statements that life on Earth came from non-living matter. From these molecules, they can support their hypotheses.

Answer 2

It is believed that in the evolutionary history of life on Earth, there was the RNA world before DNA and proteins. RNA is a self-replicating molecule that can store and replicate genetic information and catalyze (ribozymes-RNA enzymes) reactions that are important for life. Because of these characteristics, it is possible that RNA world really existed. Because of the better stability and durability than RNA DNA later it became the predominant storage molecule.