Ultraviolet selection pressure on the earliest organisms

Abstract

It had been proposed by Sagan (1957, 1961) that UV light, partially penetrating the primitive reducing atmosphere of the earth, posed a major problem for the earliest evolution of life. This argument is now updated and refined. The picture of a secondary reducing atmosphere is presented. It is assumed that an excess of hydrogen from this atmosphere has already escaped to space. The genetic material surrounded itself as a solution to the UV selection pressure with bases or nucleotides having no function whatever in replication or protein synthesis.