The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Exponential self-replication enabled through a fibre elongation/breakage mechanism
Open accessAbstract
Self-replicating molecules are likely to have played a central role in the origin of life. Most scenarios of Darwinian evolution at the molecular level require self-replicators capable of exponential growth, yet only very few exponential replicators have been reported to date and general design criteria for exponential replication are lacking. Here we show that a peptide-functionalized macrocyclic self-replicator exhibits exponential growth when subjected to mild agitation. The replicator self-assembles into elongated fibres of which the ends promote replication and fibre growth. Agitation results in breakage of the growing fibres, generating more fibre ends. Our data suggest a mechanism in which mechanical energy promotes the liberation of the replicator from the inactive self-assembled state, thereby overcoming self-inhibition that prevents the majority of self-replicating molecules developed to date from attaining exponential growth.
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Cited by
Materials learning from life: concepts for active, adaptive and autonomous molecular systems
Merindol, R., & Walther, A. (2017) · Chemical Society Reviews · doi:10.1039/c6cs00738d · Cited by 533
Prebiotic Peptides: Molecular Hubs in the Origin of Life
Frenkel-Pinter, M., Samanta, M., Ashkenasy, G., & Leman, L. J. (2020) · Chemical Reviews · doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.9b00664 · Cited by 354
Diversification of self-replicating molecules
Sadownik, J. W., Mattia, E., Nowak, P., & Otto, S. (2016) · Nature Chemistry · doi:10.1038/nchem.2419 · Cited by 214
Self-citationFrom self-replication to replicator systems en route to de novo life
Adamski, P., Eleveld, M., Sood, A., Kun, Á., Szilágyi, A., Czárán, T., Szathmáry, E., & Otto, S. (2020) · Nature Reviews Chemistry · doi:10.1038/s41570-020-0196-x · Cited by 200
Self-citationOrigins of life: a problem for physics, a key issues review
Walker, S. I. (2017) · Reports on Progress in Physics · doi:10.1088/1361-6633/aa7804 · Cited by 94
Metadata
- Authors
- Colomb-Delsuc, M., Mattia, E., Sadownik, J. W., & Otto, S.
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2015-06-17
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 7427-7427
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2268742660
- Cited by
- 170
- References
- 13
- FWCI
- 8.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- Licence
- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (tdm)
- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (vor)
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