I personally am a fan of the RNA world hypothesis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world RNA can act as both a store

I personally am a fan of the RNA world hypothesis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world RNA can act as both a store of information, and as an enzyme catalyzing reactions. In this theory, certain sequences of RNA would be the original self-replicating molecules. Over time, variations in their replication would give rise to other enzymes for specialized reactions, and DNA as a pure-data store. Jack Szostak has done an excellent series of short videos on the theory, and he and his students have done a surprising amount of experiments to support the theory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqPGOhXoprU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqPGOhXoprU