Abstract
THE production of amino acids and their condensation to polypeptides under plausibly prebiotic conditions have long been known1,2. But despite the central importance of molecular self-replication in the origin of life, the feasibility of peptide self-replication has not been established experimentally3–6. Here we report an example of a self-replicating peptide. We show that a 32-residue α-helical peptide based on the leucine-zipper domain of the yeast transcription factor GCN4 can act autocatalytically in templating its own synthesis by accelerating the thioester-promoted amide-bond condensation of 15- and 17-residue fragments in neutral, dilute aqueous solutions. The self-replication process displays parabolic growth pattern with the initial rates of product formation correlating with the square-root of initial template concentration.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 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
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Miller, S. L. & Orgel, L. E. The Origins of Life on the Earth (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1974).
Fox, S. W. & Dose, K. Molecular Evolution and the Origin of Life (Dekker, New York, 1977).
Orgel, L. E. Nature 358, 203–209 (1992).
Oparin, A. I. Adv. Enzymol. 27, 347–380 (1965).
Dyson, F. J. J. Molec. Evol. 18, 344–350 (1982).
Kauffman, S. A. J. theor. Biol. 119, 1–24 (1986).
von Kiedrowski, G. Angew. Chem. int. Edn. engl. 25, 932–935 (1986).
Zielinski, W. S. & Orgel, L. E. Nature 327, 346–347 (1987).
von Kiedrowski, G., Wlotzka, B. & Helbing, J. Angew. Chem. int. Edn. engl. 28, 1235–1237 (1989).
Tjivikua, T., Ballester, P. & Rebek, J. Jr J. Am. chem. Soc. 112, 1249–1250 (1990).
Nowick, J. S., Feng, Q., Tjivikua, T., Ballester, P. & Rebek, J. Jr J. Am. chem. Soc. 113, 8831–8839 (1991).
von Kiedrowski, G., Wlotzka, B., Helbing, J., Matzen, M. & Jordan, S. Angew Chem. int. Edn. engl. 30, 423–426 (1991).
Winter, E. A., Conn, M. M. & Rebek, J. Jr J. Am. chem. Soc. 116, 8877–8884 (1994).
Li, T. & Nicolaou, K. C. Nature 369, 218–221 (1994).
Pitsch, S. et al. Helv. chim. Acta 78, 1621–1635 (1995).
Sievers, D. & von Kiedrowski, G. Nature 369, 221–224 (1994).
Harbury, P. B., Zhang, T., Kim, P. S. & Alber, T. Science 262, 1401–1407 (1993).
Zhou, N. E., Kay, C. M. & Hodges, R. S. Biochemistry 31, 5739–5746 (1992).
Dawson, P. E., Muir, T. W., Clark-Lewsi, I. & Kent, S. B. H. Science 266, 776–779 (1994).
von Kiedrowski, G. Bioorg. Chem. Front. 3, 113–146 (1993).
Wintner, E. A., Tsao, B. & Rebek, J. Jr J. org. Chem. 60, 7997–8001 (1995).
Hu, J. C., O'Shea, E. K., Kim, P. S. & Sauer, R. T. Science 250, 1400–1403 (1990).
Ghadiri, M. R., Granja, J. R., Milligan, R. A., McRee, D. E. & Khazanovich, N. Nature 366, 324–327 (1993).
Kobayashi, K., Granja, J. R. & Ghadiri, M. R. Angew. Chem. int. Edn. engl. 34, 95–98 (1995).
Bennett, M. J., Schlungger, M. P. & Eisenberg, D. Proat. Sci. 4, 2455–2468 (1995).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, D., Granja, J., Martinez, J. et al. A self-replicating peptide. Nature 382, 525–528 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/382525a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/382525a0
This article is cited by
-
From autocatalysis to survival of the fittest in self-reproducing lipid systems
Nature Reviews Chemistry (2023)
-
Periodic temperature changes drive the proliferation of self-replicating RNAs in vesicle populations
Nature Communications (2023)
-
Solvent-free autocatalytic supramolecular polymerization
Nature Materials (2022)
-
Evolutionary transition from a single RNA replicator to a multiple replicator network
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Proliferating coacervate droplets as the missing link between chemistry and biology in the origins of life
Nature Communications (2021)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
