Kinetic properties of an RNA enzyme that undergoes self-sustained exponential amplification
Open accessAbstract
A special class of biochemical reactions involves a set of enzymes that generate additional copies of themselves and transfer heritable information from parent to progeny molecules, thus providing the basis for genetics and Darwinian evolution. Such a process has been realized with a pair of self-replicating RNA enzymes that undergo exponential amplification at a constant temperature. Exponential growth requires that the rate of production of new enzymes be directly proportional to the existing concentration of enzymes, which is the case for this system and provides a doubling time of ~20 min. However, the catalytic rate of the underlying enzymes is ~100-fold faster than the observed rate of replication. As in biological replication, other aspects of the system limit the generation time, chiefly the propensity of the substrate molecules to form nonproductive complexes that limit their availability for replication. An analysis of this and other kinetic properties of the self-replicating RNA enzymes reveals how exponential amplification is achieved and how the rate of amplification might be increased.
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Polymerase ribozymes selected in vitro over decades now have sufficiently high fidelity to accurately copy sequences 80-200 nucleotides long.
“Polymerase ribozymes have been selected in vitro over decades, showing improvement over a series of selections, and now have sufficiently high fidelity to accurately copy sequences 80–200 nucleotides long [94–100].”
From The RNA world as a model system to study the origin of life (2015) · cites this paper as [98]
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- Authors
- Ferretti, A. C., & Joyce, G. F.
- Affiliations
- Scripps Research Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Joyce, Gerald F.
- Venue
- Biochemistry
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2013-02-05
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1227-1235
- ISSN
- 0006-2960 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-4995
- PMC
- PMC3579227
- OpenAlex
- W2019626555
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Biochemistry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM065130)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Keywords
- exponential amplification, RNA self-replication, catalytic kinetics, generation time, autocatalysis
- MeSH terms
- Base Sequence, Kinetics, Models, Chemical, Molecular Sequence Data, Polynucleotide Ligases, RNA, Catalytic, Base Pairing
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