ArticleNature communications2018
A transient self-assembling self-replicator.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- Emergent properties of supramolecular peptide assemblies.Chemical communications (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- Cytotoxicity and Nanoassembly Characteristics of Aromatic Amides of Oleanolic Acid and Ursolic Acid.ACS omega · 2025Article
- Imine-Based Transient Supramolecular Polymers.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025Article
- Feedback driven autonomous cycles of assembly and disassembly from minimal building blocks.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Darwinian Evolution of Self-Replicating DNA in a Synthetic Protocell.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Repurposing a Catalytic Cycle for Transient Self-Assembly.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2024Article
- Fe-CP-based Catalytic Oxidation and Dissipative Self-Assembly of a Ferrocenyl Surfactant Applied in DNA Capture and Release.ACS omega · 2024Article
- Life should be redefined: Any molecule with the ability to self-replicate should be considered life.F1000Research · 2024Article
- Selectively advantageous instability in biotic and pre-biotic systems and implications for evolution and aging.Frontiers in aging · 2024Review
- From autocatalysis to survival of the fittest in self-reproducing lipid systems.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2023Review
- Design rules for reciprocal coupling in chemically fueled assembly.Chemical science · 2023Article
- Mechanosensitive non-equilibrium supramolecular polymerization in closed chemical systems.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Temporally programmed polymer - solvent interactions using a chemical reaction network.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Memory, switches, and an OR-port through bistability in chemically fueled crystals.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Out-of-Equilibrium Self-Replication Allows Selection for Dynamic Kinetic Stability in a System of Competing Replicators.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2022Article
- Solvent-free autocatalytic supramolecular polymerization.Nature materials · 2022Article
- Substrate induced generation of transient self-assembled catalytic systems.Chemical science · 2021Review
- Synthesis of lipid membranes for artificial cells.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2021Review
- Selection between Competing Self-Reproducing Lipids: Succession and Dynamic Activation.JACS Au · 2021Article
- A dissipative pathway for the structural evolution of DNA fibres.Nature chemistry · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Developing physical models of complex dynamic systems showing emergent behaviour is key to informing on persistence and replication in biology, how living matter emerges from chemistry, and how to design systems with new properties. Herein we report a fully synthetic small molecule system in which a surfactant replicator is formed from two phase-separated reactants using an alkene metathesis catalyst. The replicator self-assembles into aggregates, which catalyse their own formation, and is thermodynamically unstable. Rather than replicating until the reactants are fully consumed, the metastable replicator is depleted in a second metathesis reaction, and closed system equilibrium is eventually reached. Mechanistic experiments suggest phase separation is responsible for both replicator formation and destruction.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.