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Abstract

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

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References and Notes

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Materials and methods are available as supporting material on Science Online.
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The authors thank L. Orgel for many stimulating discussions. This research was supported by grants from NASA (NNX07AJ23G) and NIH (R01GM065130) and by the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology.

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Published In

Science
Volume 323 | Issue 5918
27 February 2009

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Submission history

Received: 29 October 2008
Accepted: 23 December 2008
Published in print: 27 February 2009

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Notes

Supporting Online Material
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/1167856/DC1
Materials and Methods
Figs. S1 and S2
References

Authors

Affiliations

Tracey A. Lincoln
Department of Chemistry, Department of Molecular Biology, and the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Gerald F. Joyce* [email protected]
Department of Chemistry, Department of Molecular Biology, and the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.

Notes

*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]

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