Replication of long nucleic acid sequences was required for the evolution of biological complexity during the origin of life; however, short sequences are normally better replicators than long ones. A common physical environment now provides a simple mechanism to reverse this trend and enables long sequences to flourish.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Kreysing, M., Keil, L., Lanzmich, S. & Braun, D. Nature Chem. 7, 203–208 (2015).
Mills, D. R., Peterson, R. L. & Spiegelman, S. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 58, 217–224 (1967).
Ichihashi, N., Usui, K., Kazuta, Y., Sunami, T., Matsuura, T. & Yomo, T. Nature Commun. 4, 2494 (2013).
Reichl, M., Herzog, M., Gotz, A. & Braun, D. Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 198101 (2014).
Eigen, M. Naturwissenschaften 58, 465–523 (1971).
Rajamani, S. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 5880–5885 (2010).
Zhang, S., Blain, J. C., Zielinska, D., Gryaznov, S. M. & Szostak, J. W. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 17732–17737 (2013).
Attwater, J., Wochner, A. & Holliger, P. Nature Chem. 5, 1011–1018 (2013).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, I. Replicating towards complexity. Nature Chem 7, 191–192 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2188
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2188
This article is cited by
-
Liposome membrane can induce self-cleavage of RNA that models the core fragments of hammerhead ribozyme
European Biophysics Journal (2016)
