Spontaneous network formation among cooperative RNA replicators

Nilesh Vaidya, Michael L. Manapat, Irene A. Chen, Ramon Xulvi-Brunet, Eric J. Hayden and Niles Lehman ()
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Nilesh Vaidya: Portland State University, PO Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207, USA
Michael L. Manapat: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University
Irene A. Chen: FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University
Ramon Xulvi-Brunet: FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University
Eric J. Hayden: Stanford University
Niles Lehman: Portland State University, PO Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207, USA

Nature, 2012, vol. 491, issue 7422, 72-77

Abstract: Abstract The origins of life on Earth required the establishment of self-replicating chemical systems capable of maintaining and evolving biological information. In an RNA world, single self-replicating RNAs would have faced the extreme challenge of possessing a mutation rate low enough both to sustain their own information and to compete successfully against molecular parasites with limited evolvability. Thus theoretical analyses suggest that networks of interacting molecules were more likely to develop and sustain life-like behaviour. Here we show that mixtures of RNA fragments that self-assemble into self-replicating ribozymes spontaneously form cooperative catalytic cycles and networks. We find that a specific three-membered network has highly cooperative growth dynamics. When such cooperative networks are competed directly against selfish autocatalytic cycles, the former grow faster, indicating an intrinsic ability of RNA populations to evolve greater complexity through cooperation. We can observe the evolvability of networks through in vitro selection. Our experiments highlight the advantages of cooperative behaviour even at the molecular stages of nascent life.

Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1038/nature11549

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