Self-Reproducing Molecular Systems
The emergence of molecular organization,
adaptation, and aquisition of
new functions in autocatalytic peptide networks
Departments of Chemistry and Molecular
Biology
and the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology,
The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California
This is an abstract
for a talk to be given at the
Fifth
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
There will be a link from here to the full article when it is
available on the web.
Nanochemistry for the Making of
Molecular Ecosystems.
What are the fundamental properties that distinguish the
chemistry of living systems, which gives rise to animate
characteristics, from inanimate in vitro chemical
transformations? Recent advances in the mathematical
understanding of complex nonlinear systems, chemistry, molecular
biology, and analytical sciences are conspiring to allow a new,
broad, and unique attack on the fundamental understanding of
living processes. The approach that we have undertaken in our
laboratory is founded on the following premises. Living systems
are viewed as autonomous self-reproducing entities that operate
based on "information". Information is originated at
the molecular level by covalent chemistry, transferred and
processed through noncovalent chemistry, expanded in complexity
at the system level, and ultimately changed through reproduction
and natural selection. In a living system, the complex blend of
nonlinear molecular information-transfer processes is thought to
bring about a coherent self-organized chemical system�a
collective of interacting and interdependent molecular species, a
"molecular ecosystem"� that as a whole can display
emergent properties far greater than the simple sum of its
chemical constituents. Therefore, in order to understand and
ultimately mimic the properties of living systems, we feel it is
necessary to begin defining the basic forms of self-organized
autocatalytic chemical networks, how they can be constructed, and
how the interplay of information and nonlinear catalysis can lead
to the expression of emergent properties. In this lecture, within
the context of de novo designed catalytic and
autocatalytic peptides, we will discuss the construction of
simple self-organized autocatalytic networks that begin to
display some of the most basic properties of living molecular
systems such as selection, adaptation, and the acquisition of new
functions.
*Corresponding Address:
M. Reza Ghadiri, Departments of Chemistry and Molecular Biology
and the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps
Research Institute, La Jolla, California, email: [email protected]
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