stable separation from their environment assembly into self-replicating structures storage of traits in chemically encoded form accumulation of energy-storing molecules
I gave my students this multiple choice question: The current, dominant theory of the origin of life on Earth depends on prebiotic substances that developed which property first?

Only one answer is correct among these 4 choices:
- stable separation from their environment
- assembly into self-replicating structures
- storage of traits in chemically encoded form
- accumulation of energy-storing molecules

Could you tell me which one is correct?

assembly into self-replicating structures