ReviewNature reviews. Chemistry2020
From self-replication to replicator systems en route to de novo life.
Review in Nature reviews. Chemistry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 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.
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
72 citing papers in PubMed, 199 citations in OpenAlex.
- Functional abiotic metabolite assembly hypothesis for the early events in the origin of life.Nature communications · 2026Review
- From rule-taking to rule-making chemistry: a minimal population-environment feedback model.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2026Article
- Parasites constrain within-population diversification while accelerating between-population divergence in an RNA replication system.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- The Emergence of Life in the Light of Evolution.ArXiv · 2026Article
- Conditions Enabling the Persistence of Cooperating Synthetase, Ligase, and Mutation-Inhibitor Catalytic Polymers.Journal of molecular evolution · 2026Article
- Experimental evolution toward extinction in a molecular host-parasite system.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Light-Driven Competitive Selection in a Protein-Catalyzed Dissipative Peptide Replication.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Experimental and Numerical Modeling of Liposome Congregation in Meteorite Craters of Early Earth.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Building Molecules by a Self-Replicator That Catalyzes Acyl Hydrazone Formation.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Autocatalytic cores in the diluted regime: classification and properties.Journal of mathematical biology · 2026Article
- Emergent properties of supramolecular peptide assemblies.Chemical communications (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- Orchestrating Self-Replication in Artificial Cells with Digital Microfluidics.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2025Article
- Bifurcations and phase transitions in the origins of life.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- An information ratchet improves selectivity in molecular recognition under non-equilibrium conditions.Nature nanotechnology · 2025Article
- Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry Generates Adaptative Libraries of Glyco-Dyn[n]Arenes That can Be Templated to Produce Anti-Adhesive Glycoconjugates Targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2025Article
- Evolutionary features in a minimal physical system: Diversity, selection, growth, inheritance, and adaptation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Photoactivated Enzymatic Reaction Network Enables Spatiotemporal Programming of Thiol/Disulfide Redox Systems.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2025Article
- Article
- Metabolism-inspired chemical reaction networks for chemically driven dissipative oligoesterification.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2025Article
- The dynamics of prebiotic take-off: the transfer of functional RNA communities from mineral surfaces to vesicles.Communications biology · 2025Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The process by which chemistry can give rise to biology remains one of the biggest mysteries in contemporary science. The de novo synthesis and origin of life both require the functional integration of three key characteristics - replication, metabolism and compartmentalization - into a system that is maintained out of equilibrium and is capable of open-ended Darwinian evolution. This Review takes systems of self-replicating molecules as starting points and describes the steps necessary to integrate additional characteristics of life. We analyse how far experimental self-replicators have come in terms of Darwinian evolution. We also cover models of replicator communities that attempt to solve Eigen's paradox, whereby accurate replication needs complex machinery yet obtaining such complex self-replicators through evolution requires accurate replication. Successful models rely on a collective metabolism and a way of (transient) compartmentalization, suggesting that the invention and integration of these two characteristics is driven by evolution. Despite our growing knowledge, there remain numerous key challenges that may be addressed by a combined theoretical and experimental approach.
Identifiers
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.