Abstract
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.
Highlights
Self-replicating molecules are likely to have played a central role in the origin of life
We report a new mechanism by which exponential replication can be achieved based on a fibre growth/breakage mechanism acting on self-assembling replicators
We demonstrate experimentally that the replication process in our system is consistent with exponential growth
Summary
Self-replicating molecules are likely to have played a central role in the origin of life. In biology replication is mediated by complex biomolecular machinery, in the prebiotic world this process must have occurred through much simpler mechanisms This postulate has spurred the development of relatively simple self-replicating and cross-replicating molecules[1,2] based on nucleic acids[3,4], peptides[5,6] or fully synthetic structures[7,8,9]. The typical design of self-replicating systems is based on template-directed ligation of two halves of the replicator, to produce a noncovalent dimer of the autocatalyst Subsequent dissociation of this duplex will liberate two replicators that can each mediate another round of replication, potentially enabling exponential growth of the replicator (Fig. 1a). We demonstrate a direct correlation between average fibre length and replication rate
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