A chemically fuelled self-replicator
A chemically fuelled self-replicator
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DOI：
10.1038/s41467-019-08885-9
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发表时间：
2019-03-01
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Fletcher, Stephen P.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Morrow, Sarah M.;Colomer, Ignacio;Fletcher, Stephen P.
化学能的持续消耗为生物系统提供动力，使它们能够操作功能性超分子结构。现代科学的一个目标是了解简单的化学混合物如何从非生命成分转变为真正的新兴系统，并生产新的栩栩如生的材料和机器。在这项工作中，一个复制因子可以通过持续消耗化学能来保持不平衡状态。该系统是由一种亚稳态表面活性剂的自催化形成驱动的，其分解产物通过化学燃料转化回建筑单元。燃料的消耗使高能复制因子能够维持在稳定状态，就像一个简单的代谢循环。当系统试图恢复平衡时，热力学驱动的反应影响单向底物通量。亚稳态复制子的浓度甚至比在封闭系统中瞬时达到的浓度更高，并且其浓度对燃料供应速率有响应。
The continuous consumption of chemical energy powers biological systems so that they can operate functional supramolecular structures. A goal of modern science is to understand how simple chemical mixtures may transition from non-living components to truly emergent systems and the production of new lifelike materials and machines. In this work a replicator can be maintained out-of-equilibrium by the continuous consumption of chemical energy. The system is driven by the autocatalytic formation of a metastable surfactant whose breakdown products are converted back into building blocks by a chemical fuel. The consumption of fuel allows the high-energy replicators to persist at a steady state, much like a simple metabolic cycle. Thermodynamically-driven reactions effect a unidirectional substrate flux as the system tries to regain equilibrium. The metastable replicator persists at a higher concentration than achieved even transiently in a closed system, and its concentration is responsive to the rate of fuel supply.