Self-replication of complementary nucleotide-based oligomers

Sievers, D.; von Kiedrowski, G.

doi:10.1038/369221a0

Cited by 486Origins and Evolution of LifeRNA and protein synthesis mechanismsDNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry

Self-replication of complementary nucleotide-based oligomers

Sievers, D., von Kiedrowski, G.·1994·Nature

DOI 10.1038/369221a0

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Abstract

The development of non-enzymatic self-replicating systems based on autocatalytic template-directed reactions is a current objective of bioorganic chemistry. Typically, a self-complementary template molecule AB is synthesized autocatalytically from two complementary template fragments A and B. Natural replication of nucleic acids, however, utilizes complementary rather than self-complementary strands. Here we report on a minimal implementation of this type of replication based on cross-catalytic template-directed syntheses of hexadeoxynucleotide derivatives from amino-trideoxynucleotides. In our experiments, two self-complementary and two complementary templates compete for their combinatorial synthesis from four common trimeric precursors. We provide kinetic evidence that cross-catalytic self-replication of complementary templates can proceed with an efficiency similar to that of autocatalytic self-replication of self-complementary templates. We observe selective stimulation of template synthesis, and thus information transfer, on seeding the reaction mixtures with one of four chemically labelled templates bearing the sequence of the reaction products. Our results bring a stage closer the development of schemes that might explain how replicating systems based on nucleic acids arose on the prebiotic Earth.

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Template-directed ligation appears to be a general phenomenon, occurring with peptides, small molecules and nucleic acids, and it can greatly accelerate bond formation.
“Template-directed ligation appears to be a general phenomenon, occurring with peptides, small molecules and nucleic acids (49–51), and it can greatly accelerate bond formation (52–54).”
From Prebiotically plausible mechanisms increase compositional diversity of nucleic acid sequences (2012) · cites this paper as [54]

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Authors: Sievers, D., & von Kiedrowski, G.
Affiliations: University of Freiburg (DE)
Venue: Nature
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published: 1994-05
Volume: 369
Issue: 6477
Pages: 221-224
ISSN: 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
1476-4687
DOI: 10.1038/369221a0
OpenAlex: W2012621789
Cited by: 486
References: 25
Citations by year: 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 19
FWCI: 28.45
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations: Nature (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
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 › Molecular Biology › DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry
Keywords: self-replication, cross-catalysis, template synthesis, autocatalysis, prebiotic chemistry, origin of life, information transmission
MeSH terms: Origin of Life, Catalysis, Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid, Deoxyribonucleotides, Biological Evolution, Kinetics, Models, Chemical, Templates, Genetic, Molecular Structure

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Self-replication of complementary nucleotide-based oligomers

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