Self-Sustained Replication of an RNA Enzyme

摘要: An RNA enzyme that catalyzes the RNA-templated joining of was converted to a format whereby two enzymes catalyze each other's synthesis from total four oligonucleotide substrates. These cross-replicating undergo self-sustained exponential amplification in absence proteins or other biological materials. Amplification occurs with doubling time about 1 hour and can be continued indefinitely. Populations various were constructed allowed compete for common pool substrates, during which recombinant replicators arose grew dominate population. replicating serve as an experimental model genetic system. Many such systems could constructed, allowing different selective outcomes related underlying properties