Related papers: Primordial RNA Replication and Applications in PCR…
The evolution of life has been a big enigma despite rapid advancements in the fields of biochemistry, astrobiology, and astrophysics in recent years. The answer to this puzzle has been as mind-boggling as the riddle relating to evolution of…
The multifarious internal workings of organisms are difficult to reconcile with a single feature defining a state of being alive. Indeed, definitions of life rely on emergent properties (growth, capacity to evolve, agency) only symptomatic…
The chiral puzzle of biological molecules is thought to be closely related to the origin of life and is still a mystery so far. Previously, we proposed a new model on the origin of life, Nebula-Relay hypothesis, which assumed that the life…
Origins of life research investigates how life could emerge from prebiotic chemistry only. One possible explanation provides the RNA world hypothesis. It states that life could emerge from RNA strands only, storing and transferring…
We propose a scenario for the origin of life based on the coevolution of lipid bilayer vesicles and protein channels.
Self-replication is central to all life, and yet how it dynamically emerges in physical, non-equilibrium systems remains poorly understood. Von Neumann's pioneering work in the 1940s and subsequent developments suggest a natural hypothesis:…
The RNA world hypothesis, that RNA genomes and catalysts preceded DNA genomes and genetically-encoded protein catalysts, has been central to models for the early evolution of life on Earth. A key part of such models is continuity between…
The aims of this paper are to propose, construct and analyse microscopic kinetic models for the emergence of long chains of RNA from monomeric beta-D-ribonucleotide precursors in prebiotic circumstances. Our theory starts out from similar…
The genetic code is profoundly shaped by an origin in ancient RNA-mediated interactions, needing an extended development to reach the Standard Genetic Code (SGC). That development can serially use RNA specificities, a ribonucleopeptide…
Background/ Objectives: Resolving the origin of the genetic code is fundamental to understanding how life began its journey out of the chemical world. Since its deciphering some 60 years ago, there is still no general theory of the…
Living organisms are not just random collections of organic molecules. There is continuous information processing going on in the apparent bouncing around of molecules of life. Optimisation criteria in this information processing can be…
The building of minimal self-reproducing systems with a physical embodiment (generically called protocells) is a great challenge, with implications for both theory and applied sciences. Although the classical view of a living protocell…
Since the Hadean era of Earth's history, peptides/proteins and RNA have undergone a complex evolutionary trajectory. Originating from simple monomeric units, these molecules evolved abiotically under various biochemical and biophysical…
Herein we consider various concepts of entropy as measures of the complexity of phenomena and in so doing encounter a fundamental problem in physics that affects how we understand the nature of reality. In essence the difficulty has to do…
The origin of life is often framed primarily as a chemical problem, yet life's defining feature is evolution. Advances in geochemistry, prebiotic chemistry, and molecular biology have produced diverse scenarios for the emergence of genomes,…
Artificial organisms are computer programs that self-replicate, mutate, compete and evolve. How do these lifelike information-processing behaviours could arise in diverse far-from-equilibrium physical systems remains an open question. Here,…
The experimental conditions by which electromagnetic signals (EMS) of low frequency can be emitted by diluted aqueous solutions of some bacterial and viral DNAs are described. That the recorded EMS and nanostructures induced in water carry…
We consider a new model which consists of a DNA together with a RNA. Here we assume that DNA is from a mammal or bird but RNA comes from a virus. To study thermodynamic properties of this model we use methods of statistical mechanics,…
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) underpins modern molecular biology, yet its deployment in emerging domains such as DNA data storage and distributed diagnostics remains constrained by bulky thermocyclers, complex thermal hardware, and…
Background: The idea that autocatalytic sets played an important role in the origin of life is not new. However, the likelihood of autocatalytic sets emerging spontaneously has long been debated. Recently, progress has been made along two…