Self-selection of Dissipative Assemblies Driven by Primitive Chemical Reaction Networks

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2018 May 26

PMID 29795292

Citations 50

Authors

Marta Tena-Solsona

Caren Wanzke

Benedikt Riess

Andreas R Bausch

Job Boekhoven

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Life is a dissipative nonequilibrium structure that requires constant consumption of energy to sustain itself. How such an unstable state could have selected from an abiotic pool of molecules remains a mystery. Here we show that liquid phase-separation offers a mechanism for the selection of dissipative products from a library of reacting molecules. We bring a set of primitive carboxylic acids out-of-equilibrium by addition of high-energy condensing agents. The resulting anhydrides are transiently present before deactivation via hydrolysis. We find the anhydrides that phase-separate into droplets to protect themselves from hydrolysis and to be more persistent than non-assembling ones. Thus, after several starvation-refueling cycles, the library self-selects the phase-separating anhydrides. We observe that the self-selection mechanism is more effective when the library is brought out-of-equilibrium by periodic addition of batches as opposed to feeding it continuously. Our results suggest that phase-separation offers a selection mechanism for energy dissipating assemblies.

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