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A Self‐Replicating Hexadeoxynucleotide
Author(s) -
von Kiedrowski Günter
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition in english
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 0570-0833
DOI - 10.1002/anie.198609322
Subject(s) - autocatalysis , abiogenesis , condensation , sine qua non , oligonucleotide , prebiotic , simple (philosophy) , nanotechnology , chemistry , computational biology , biology , materials science , physics , astrobiology , biochemistry , dna , catalysis , philosophy , thermodynamics , linguistics , epistemology
Autocatalysis in a nonenzymatic, templete‐directed condensation has been demonstrated in a system consisting of three oligonucleotides. A simple form of self‐replication occurs, albeit only to a small extent: the template T organizes the building blocks Å and B in such a way that condensation can occur, leading to a second template molecule. Such a nonenzymatic process has long been sought, because it is postulated as a sine qua non for prebiotic evolution in theories on the origin of life.