Towards open-ended evolution in self-replicating molecular systems

• Herman Duim and
• Sijbren Otto

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 1189–1203, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.118

• -replicating molecules and describe some recent advances in this field. While evolution experiments involving self-replicating molecules have shown promising results, true open-ended evolution has not been realized so far. A full understanding of the requirements for open-ended evolution would provide a better

• understanding of how life could have emerged from molecular building blocks and what is needed to create a minimal form of life in the laboratory. Keywords: autocatalysis; open-ended evolution; origin of life; self-replication; synthetic life; Introduction Mankind has always pondered upon its own existence

• that, although systems that show intriguing evolutionary capabilities have been devised, there is still a long way to go before a system that is capable of true undirected or open-ended evolution has been realized. Worryingly, the phenomenon of open-ended evolution in itself is currently not well

How and why kinetics, thermodynamics, and chemistry induce the logic of biological evolution

• Addy Pross and
• Robert Pascal

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 665–674, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.66

• possibilities for variation are indeed a requirement for systems to undergo open-ended evolution [66]. The storage of genetic information as a sequence in a polymer associated with template replication through base-pairing constitutes an efficient system to ensure evolvability. It is that evolvability which