Difference between revisions of "Robust self-replication of combinatorial information via crystal growth and scission"
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|abstract=What is the simplest chemical self-replicator? Well, that depends on just what you mean by "self-replication". If your interest is ultimately in Darwinian evolution -- and perhaps the origin of life here on Earth or elsewhere -- then an interesting self-replicator must carry combinatorial information that guides its function and can be mutated to explore a vast range of functions. In 1965, Graham Cairns-Smith proposed that crystals -- specifically, polytypic minerals -- may have been the first such chemical self-replicators capable of Darwinian evolution. Here, we experimentally explore the general principles and mechanisms needed for Cairns-Smith's hypothesis, but using DNA tile crystals rather than mineral crystals, and find that they are sound in practice. | |abstract=What is the simplest chemical self-replicator? Well, that depends on just what you mean by "self-replication". If your interest is ultimately in Darwinian evolution -- and perhaps the origin of life here on Earth or elsewhere -- then an interesting self-replicator must carry combinatorial information that guides its function and can be mutated to explore a vast range of functions. In 1965, Graham Cairns-Smith proposed that crystals -- specifically, polytypic minerals -- may have been the first such chemical self-replicators capable of Darwinian evolution. Here, we experimentally explore the general principles and mechanisms needed for Cairns-Smith's hypothesis, but using DNA tile crystals rather than mineral crystals, and find that they are sound in practice. | ||
|authors=Rebecca Schulman, Bernard Yurke, and Erik Winfree | |authors=Rebecca Schulman, Bernard Yurke, and Erik Winfree | ||
| − | |file=http://www.dna.caltech.edu/Papers/crystal-self-replication2012.pdf | + | |file=[http://www.dna.caltech.edu/Papers/crystal-self-replication2012.pdf Robust self-replication of combinatorial information via crystal growth and scission.pdf] |
}} | }} | ||
Latest revision as of 13:11, 22 June 2021
Published on: 2012/04/09
Abstract
What is the simplest chemical self-replicator? Well, that depends on just what you mean by "self-replication". If your interest is ultimately in Darwinian evolution -- and perhaps the origin of life here on Earth or elsewhere -- then an interesting self-replicator must carry combinatorial information that guides its function and can be mutated to explore a vast range of functions. In 1965, Graham Cairns-Smith proposed that crystals -- specifically, polytypic minerals -- may have been the first such chemical self-replicators capable of Darwinian evolution. Here, we experimentally explore the general principles and mechanisms needed for Cairns-Smith's hypothesis, but using DNA tile crystals rather than mineral crystals, and find that they are sound in practice.
Authors
Rebecca Schulman, Bernard Yurke, and Erik Winfree
File
Robust self-replication of combinatorial information via crystal growth and scission.pdf
