Darwinian properties and their trade-offs in autocatalytic RNA reaction networks.

ABSTRACT: Discovering autocatalytic chemistries that can evolve is a major goal in systems chemistry and a critical step towards understanding the origin of life. Autocatalytic networks have been discovered in various chemistries, but we lack a general understanding of how network topology controls the Darwinian properties of variation, differential reproduction, and heredity, which are mediated by the chemical composition. Using barcoded sequencing and droplet microfluidics, we establish a landscape of thousands of networks of RNAs that catalyze their own formation from fragments, and derive relationships between network topology and chemical composition. We find that strong variations arise from catalytic innovations perturbing weakly connected networks, and that growth increases with global conne

SUBMITTER: Ameta S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7870898 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature