ArticleNature chemistry2025
Evolution of complex chemical mixtures reveals combinatorial compression and population synchronicity.
Article in Nature chemistry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 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.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- The Ascent of Miniproteins.Biochemistry · 2026Review
- The master molecule that built biology: How water shaped the chemistry of life.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2026Review
- Stringent selection on kinetics of condensation reactions: early steps in chemical evolution.Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP · 2026Article
- Protopeptide backbone affects assembly in aqueous solutions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Biological Polymers: Evolution, Function, and Significance.Accounts of chemical research · 2025Article
- Selection-diversification interplay in oligonucleotide chemical evolution.Biophysics and physicobiology · 2025Article
- From Catalysis of Evolution to Evolution of Catalysis.Accounts of chemical research · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Many open questions about the origins of life are centred on the generation of complex chemical species. Past work has characterized specific chemical reactions that might lead to biological molecules. Here we establish an experimental model of chemical evolution to investigate general processes by which chemical systems continuously change. We used water as a chemical reactant, product and medium. We leveraged oscillating water activity at near-ambient temperatures to cause ratcheting of near-equilibrium reactions in mixtures of organic molecules containing carboxylic acids, amines, thiols and hydroxyl groups. Our system (1) undergoes continuous change with transitions to new chemical spaces while not converging throughout the experiment; (2) demonstrates combinatorial compression with stringent chemical selection; and (3) displays synchronicity of molecular populations. Our results suggest that chemical evolution and selection can be observed in organic mixtures and might ultimately be adapted to produce a broad array of molecules with novel structures and functions.
Identifiers
39939341What 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.