Light-Fueled Primitive Replication and Selection in Biomimetic Chemical Systems

The concept of chemically evolvable replicators is centralto abiogenesis.Chemical evolvability requires three essential components: energy-harvestingmechanisms for nonequilibrium dissipation, kinetically asymmetricreplication and decomposition pathways, and structure-dependent selectivetemplating in the autocatalytic cycles. We observed a UVA light-fueledchemical system displaying sequence-dependent replication and replicatordecomposition. The system was constructed with primitive peptidicfoldamer components. The photocatalytic formation-recombinationcycle of thiyl radicals was coupled with the molecular recognitionsteps in the replication cycles. Thiyl radical-mediated chain reactionwas responsible for the replicator death mechanism. The competingand kinetically asymmetric replication and decomposition processesled to light intensity-dependent selection far from equilibrium. Here,we show that this system can dynamically adapt to energy influx andseeding. The results highlight that mimicking chemical evolution isfeasible with primitive building blocks and simple chemical reactions