Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Alternatives to DNA

+0
−0

I am in the process of creating my universe, and have based it on semi-hard science. The universe that I have created is quite extensive, and I thought that it would be unreasonable for the only kind of genetic material to exist to be DNA and or RNA, and yet I don't just want to come up with some outlandish, unrealistic alternative genetic material.

So my question is: Are there any molecules that could realistically serve as genetic material in place of DNA and RNA?

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/36222. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

1 answer

+0
−0

Xenonucleic acids (XNAs) (see also Wikipedia) may be what you're looking for.

XNAs are nucleic acids related to DNA, some of which can store information for organisms in the same way that DNA does for life as we know it. These six are

  • HNA (anhydrohexitol nucleic acid)
  • CeNA (cyclohexene nucleic acid)
  • LNA (locked nucleic acid)
  • GNA (glycol nucleic acid)
  • PNA (peptide nucleic acid)
  • TNA (threose nucleic acid)

Of these, the latter four are perhaps the best-studied.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »