Alessandro Filisetti, Alex Graudenzi, Roberto Serra, Marco Villani, Davide De Lucrezia, Rudolf Marcel Füchslin, Stuart Kauffman, Norman H. Packard, Irene Poli
AbstractBackgroundThe concept of an autocatalytic set of molecules has been posited theoretically and demonstrated empirically with catalytic RNA molecules. For this concept to have significance in a realistic origins-of-life scenario, it will be important to demonstrate the evolvability of suc...... hiện toàn bộ
Vittorio Saggiomo, Yana R. Hristova, R. Frederick Ludlow, Sijbren Otto
AbstractBackgroundThe assessment of molecular similarity is a key step in the drug discovery process that has thus far relied almost exclusively on computational approaches. We now report an experimental method for similarity assessment based on dynamic combinatorial chemistry.
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The hypercycle is a system of replicators, whose members are auto- and cross-catalytic: replication of each member is catalyzed by at least one other member of the system. Therefore, the kinetics of growth of every member is at least second order. In ecology such systems are called mutualistic whose members are cooperating with each other. The dynamics of such systems are described broadly by the ...... hiện toàn bộ
Arne Dieckmann, Sabrina Beniken, Christian Lorenz, Nikos L Doltsinis, Günter von Kiedrowski
A self-replicating system based on a cycloaddition of a fulvene derivative and a maleinimide is investigated using a two-pronged approach combining NMR spectroscopy with computer simulations. In the course of the reaction, two diastereomers are formed with identical rates in the absence of replication. When replication is enabled, a network emerges in which one diastereomer takes over the resource...... hiện toàn bộ
Filipa L Sousa, Wim Hordijk, Mike Steel, William F Martin
A central unsolved problem in early evolution concerns self-organization towards higher complexity in chemical reaction networks. In theory, autocatalytic sets have useful properties to help model such transitions. Autocatalytic sets are chemical reaction systems in which molecules belonging to the set catalyze the synthesis of other members of the set. Given an external supply of starting molecul...... hiện toàn bộ
Today most chemists think that the answer to how life on earth emerged is still unknown. They assume a gap between chemistry and biology that is still unbridged. For chemists, understanding the origin of life requires the experimental modeling of a process that bridges this gap. They will not consider the problem solved before they are able to perform such tasks. No gap appears when we are pursuin...... hiện toàn bộ
While studying fatty acid vesicles as model primitive cell membranes, we encountered a dramatic phenomenon in which light triggers the sudden rupture of micron-scale dye-containing vesicles, resulting in rapid release of vesicle contents. We show that such vesicle explosions are caused by an increase in internal osmotic pressure mediated by the oxidation of the internal buffer by reactive oxygen s...... hiện toàn bộ
Fatty acid vesicles are an important part of protocell models currently studied. As protocells can be considered as pre-biological precursors of cells, the models try to contribute to a better understanding of the (cellular) origin of life and emphasize on 2 major aspects: compartmentalization and replication. It has been demonstrated that lipid-based membranes are amenable to growth and division ...... hiện toàn bộ