J. W. Szostak

This study examines how mismatches and bulges in DNA/RNA duplexes affect hybridization kinetics and shows that transient low-specificity states can support prebiotic copying reactions.

This study measures the thermodynamics and kinetics of DNA and RNA dinucleotide dehybridization using infrared spectroscopy and simulations, revealing stabilization through stacking interactions and structural dynamics.

This study shows that molecular crowding supports ribozyme-catalyzed RNA assembly under low Mg2+ conditions, suggesting a role in early life.

This study shows that eutectic phase phospho-Passerini chemistry activates short oligonucleotides, enabling efficient nonenzymatic template-directed RNA copying during freeze-thaw cycles.

This study demonstrates RNA-catalyzed RNA ligation within fatty acid vesicles by using a ribozyme functional at low Mg2+ concentrations and prebiotically relevant molecules to stabilize the system.

The paper uses molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how Mg2+ coordination affects nonenzymatic RNA primer extension, finding that specific coordination patterns enhance reaction efficiency.

The paper tests a non-enzymatic RNA replication model using a virtual circular genome, finding that environmental fluctuations and pre-activation enhance replication.

This study shows that model protocells can perform a process similar to passive endocytosis, allowing rapid uptake and slow release of impermeable molecules, suggesting a possible mechanism for early nutrient acquisition before protein transporters evolved.

This study calculates kinetic parameters for RNA oligonucleotide interactions and shows they can create kinetic traps that slow hybridization timescales, potentially aiding RNA replication in early life.

The paper investigates nonenzymatic RNA copying using 2AI-bridged dinucleotides, finding that sequence-dependent differences in binding and reaction rates limit template copying.

This study shows aminoacylated RNAs can assemble into active chimeric ribozymes, suggesting aminoacylation may have aided ribozyme formation before ribosomes evolved.

This paper demonstrates that freeze-thaw cycles enable a continuous prebiotic pathway for nucleotide activation and nonenzymatic RNA copying in a single reaction mixture.

This study investigates whether aminoacylation could have facilitated nonenzymatic RNA replication, finding that aminoacylated RNAs enable faster primer extension and ligation reactions under protocell-like conditions.

This study investigates the effects of threo-nucleotides on nonenzymatic template-directed polymerization, finding that they are less efficient than ribo-nucleotides in primer extension.

This study presents a novel prebiotically plausible chemistry for activating RNA nucleotides, enabling nonenzymatic template-directed RNA copying.

This study investigates how RNA could emerge from prebiotic mixtures of ribonucleotides, arabinonucleotides, and 2'-deoxyribonucleotides through nonenzymatic template-directed synthesis.

This study demonstrates non-enzymatic RNA primer extension through strand displacement using short RNA oligonucleotides, suggesting a prebiotic mechanism for RNA replication.

This study demonstrates that 3′-phosphate terminated RNA strands can participate in template-directed copying reactions to form stable pyrophosphate linkages, offering a non-enzymatic pathway for RNA strand recovery.

The paper provides guidelines for interpreting turbidity measurements of vesicle samples and highlights how vesicle properties affect turbidity.

This study uses time-resolved crystallography to directly observe nonenzymatic RNA primer extension, revealing key intermediates and their structural organization.