Editing Genetic recombination (section)

==Role of recombination in the origin of life==
Nowak and Ohtsuki<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nowak |first1=Martin A. |last2=Ohtsuki |first2=Hisashi |date=2008-09-30 |title=Prevolutionary dynamics and the origin of evolution |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=105 |issue=39 |pages=14924–14927 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0806714105 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=2567469 |pmid=18791073|bibcode=2008PNAS..10514924N |doi-access=free }}</ref> noted that the origin of life ([[abiogenesis]]) is also the origin of biological [[evolution]].  They pointed out that all known life on earth is based on [[biopolymer]]s and proposed that any theory for the origin of life must involve biological polymers that act as information carriers and catalysts.  Lehman<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1007/s00239-003-2454-1 |pmid=12911039|title=A Case for the Extreme Antiquity of Recombination |year=2003 |last1=Lehman |first1=Niles |journal=Journal of Molecular Evolution |volume=56 |issue=6 |pages=770–777 |bibcode=2003JMolE..56..770L |s2cid=33130898 }}</ref> argued that recombination was an evolutionary development as ancient as the origins of life.  Smail et al.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1261/rna.068908.118 |pmc=642629 |pmid=30670484|title=Spontaneous advent of genetic diversity in RNA populations through multiple recombination mechanisms |year=2019 |last1=Smail |first1=Benedict A. |last2=Clifton |first2=Bryce E. |last3=Mizuuchi |first3=Ryo |last4=Lehman |first4=Niles |journal=RNA |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=453–464 }}</ref> proposed that in the primordial Earth, recombination played a key role in the expansion of the initially short informational polymers (presumed to be [[RNA]]) that were the precursors to life.