One goal of origins of life research is to understand how primitive informational and catalytic biopolymers emerged and evolved. Recently, a number of sequencing techniques have been applied to analysis of replicating and evolving primitive biopolymer systems, providing a sequence-specific and high-resolution view of primitive chemical processes. Here, we review application of sequencing techniques to analysis of synthetic and primitive nucleic acids and polypeptides. This includes next-generation sequencing of primitive polymerization and evolution processes, followed by discussion of other novel biochemical techniques that could contribute to sequence analysis of primitive biopolymer driven chemical systems. Further application of sequencing to origins of life research, perhaps as a life detection technology, could provide insight into the origin and evolution of informational and catalytic biopolymers on early Earth or elsewhere.

T.Z.J. is a co-inventor of a provisional patent filing related to MS-based direct RNA modification sequencing and is also a co-inventor of patents and patent applications related to single cell nucleic acid sequencing and detection (but T.Z.J. has not actively worked in the field of single cell sequencing since 2012).