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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 9: Evolutionary Game Theory (Joint Session SOE/DY/BP)

BP 9.3: Vortrag

Montag, 7. März 2016, 12:45–13:00, H36

A synthetic codon replicator with tRNA — •Simon Alexander Lanzmich and Dieter Braun — Systems Biophysics, Physics Department, Nanosystems Initiative Munich and Center for NanoScience, LMU Munich, Germany

Every evolving system requires the storage and replication of genetic information. Modern biology solves this using an RNA-dominated machinery (ribosome and a pool of tRNAs) to encode proteins. The proteins in turn replicate genetic information. In contrast, early life most probably replicated genes using a pool of short RNA sequences.

To approach above chicken and egg problem, we explore an autonomous, waste-free, and purely thermally driven replication mechanism. Instead of chemical base-by-base replication, it operates on successions of multi-base codons. The molecules used have a hairpin loop at each end and are derived from transfer RNA. They encode and replicate a binary code at the anticodon sites of tRNA.

Replication of a template succession of tRNAs is facilitated by temperature oscillations and proceeds in three logical steps. (1) Strands with matching anticodons bind to the template. (2) Fluctuations in the bound strands' hairpins allow for the hybridization to neighboring strands. (3) Subsequent heating splits the replicate from the template, freeing both for the next cycle. This physical ligation chain reaction proceeds cross-catalytically. Instead of chemical backbone ligation, matching strands are linked by physical base pairing.