ArticleJournal of molecular evolution2018
Folding, Assembly, and Persistence: The Essential Nature and Origins of Biopolymers.
Article in Journal of molecular evolution, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Predicting the plastic biodegradation potential within microbial lineages and across global ecosystems.Microbial genomics · 2026Article
- Hydroxy acid conjugation to lipids increases structural and hydrolytic stability.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Protopeptide backbone affects assembly in aqueous solutions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Science of the gaps.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Thermodynamics of calcium binding to heparin: Implications of solvation and water structuring for polysaccharide biofunctions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Embracing Complexity: Peptides as Tunable Scaffolds in the Construction of Discrete Supramolecular Systems.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2025Review
- Biodegradable Gel Blends with Enhanced Sensing Capabilities: SIO₂-Based Innovations for Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Packaging.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2025Article
- Evolution of complex chemical mixtures reveals combinatorial compression and population synchronicity.Nature chemistry · 2025Article
- Prebiotic Peptide Synthesis: How Did Longest Peptide Appear?Journal of molecular evolution · 2025Review
- Biological Polymers: Evolution, Function, and Significance.Accounts of chemical research · 2025Article
- Biosynthesis of peptide-nucleobase hybrids in ribosomal peptides.Nature chemical biology · 2025Article
- Defined folding pattern of poly(rG) supports inherent ability to encode biological information.Biopolymers · 2024Article
- Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems.Interface focus · 2024Review
- Solvent constraints for biopolymer folding and evolution in extraterrestrial environments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Which came first: the chicken, the egg, or guanine?RNA (New York, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Goldilocks and RNA: where Mg2+ concentration is just right.Nucleic acids research · 2023Article
- Why we are made of proteins and nucleic acids: Structural biology views on extraterrestrial life.Biophysics and physicobiology · 2023Article
- Multicomponent reaction derived small di- and tri-carbohydrate-based glycomimetics as tools for probing lectin specificity.Glycoconjugate journal · 2022Article
- Trinity of G-tetrads and origin of translation.Biology direct · 2022Article
- Adaptation and Exaptation: From Small Molecules to Feathers.Journal of molecular evolution · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Life as we know it requires three basic types of polymers: polypeptide, polynucleotide, and polysaccharide. Here we evaluate both universal and idiosyncratic characteristics of these biopolymers. We incorporate this information into a model that explains much about their origins, selection, and early evolution. We observe that all three biopolymer types are pre-organized, conditionally self-complementary, chemically unstable in aqueous media yet persistent because of kinetic trapping, with chiral monomers and directional chains. All three biopolymers are synthesized by dehydration reactions that are catalyzed by molecular motors driven by hydrolysis of phosphorylated nucleosides. All three biopolymers can access specific states that protect against hydrolysis. These protected states are folded, using self-complementary interactions among recurrent folding elements within a given biopolymer, or assembled, in associations between the same or different biopolymer types. Self-association in a hydrolytic environment achieves self-preservation. Heterogeneous association achieves partner-preservation. These universal properties support a model in which life's polymers emerged simultaneously and co-evolved in a common hydrolytic milieu where molecular persistence depended on folding and assembly. We believe that an understanding of the structure, function, and origins of any given type of biopolymer requires the context of other biopolymers.
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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.