Molecular Origins of Life, Munich 2021

Sitzung

Session XI

27.08.2021, 15:00

Online

2. Emergent by-products of evolution

Irene Chen (UCLA)

27.08.21, 15:00

The earliest living systems may have used RNA to both carry genetic information and catalyze chemical reactions. The sequence-activity relationship of RNA can be captured by a ‘fitness landscape’, or the mapping of activity over all possible sequence space. Fitness landscapes describe the emergence of functional RNA by delineating possible evolutionary pathways as well as capturing the...

19. Chemistry mimicking life: From hydrothermal vent precipitates to self-propulsion

Oliver Steinbock (Florida State University)

27.08.21, 15:25

We are often surprised, if not puzzled, by inorganic reactions forming life-like, smoothly curved structures. Moreover, these abiotic structures can grow under conditions that likely existed on the early Earth four billion years ago. If we could go back in time to this period, would we be able to draw a clear line between abiotic complexity and the earliest living systems? Did life perhaps...