question_answer

RNA is considered to be the first genetic material. Explain the statement.

Or

Discovery of lobefins is considered very significant by evolutionary biologists. Explain.

Answer:

RNA was the first genetic material to be discovered. It is considered as such because

(a) It is capable of both storing genetic information and catalysing chemical reactions.

(b) Essential life processes such as metabolism, translation, splicing, etc., have evolved around RNA.

(c) It can directly code for protein synthesis and hence can easily express the character.

However, its being reactive and unstable while DNA which is more stable and emerged as the genetic material inmost organisms.

Or

Lobefins (Coelacanth) were the ancestors (first amphibians) of modern day frogs and salamanders. These were the fishes with stout and strong fins who could move on the land and in the water.

Lobefins lived about 350 mya and later became extinct.

But in 1938, a Coelacanth (fish) was captured in South Africa. It is the only living fossil of this species hence is considered very important by the evolutionary biologists.