Mechanosensitive self-replication driven by self-organization.

摘要: Self-replicating molecules are likely to have played an important role in the origin of life, and a small number fully synthetic self-replicators already been described. Yet it remains open question which factors most effectively bias replication toward far-from-equilibrium distributions characterizing even simple organisms. We report here two self-replicating peptide-derived macrocycles that emerge from dynamic combinatorial library compete for common feedstock. Replication is driven by nanostructure formation, resulting assembly peptides into fibers held together beta sheets. Which replicators becomes dominant influenced whether sample shaken or stirred. These results establish mechanical forces can act as selection pressure competition between determine outcome covalent synthesis.