Enzyme-free genetic copying of DNA and RNA sequences

• Marilyne Sosson and
• Clemens Richert

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 603–617, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.47

• observed in our assays. But, while reactions that take weeks or months are not problematic for prebiotic evolution, which probably occurred over many millions of years, they are difficult to study in detail in an academic setting that requires results on the time scale of Ph.D. theses. Conclusion Enzyme

Framing major prebiotic transitions as stages of protocell development: three challenges for origins-of-life research

• Ben Shirt-Ediss,
• Sara Murillo-Sánchez and
• Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 1388–1395, doi:10.3762/bjoc.13.135

• proper units of prebiotic evolution. We highlight, in particular, how the organisational features of those chemically active and reactive protocells, at different stages of the process, would strongly influence their corresponding evolutionary capacities. As a result of our analysis, we suggest three

• . Protocells as the main units of prebiotic evolution: three hypothetical stages of development toward LUCA, with the correlation between protocell organisation and evolutionary potential depicted at each stage. Adapted from [43]. (a) Self-assembled (poly-disperse and likely multilamellar) fatty acid vesicles

• experimental challenges aimed at constructing protocell systems made of a diversity of functionally coupled components and, thereby, at characterizing more precisely the type of prebiotic evolutionary dynamics that such protocells could engage in. Keywords: functional integration; origins of life; prebiotic