Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 13.3 A conformon-based model of the origin of self-replicating molecular systems that is
constructed on the basis of the assumption that
frustrations
embedded in RNA carry both
sequence
information
and
mechanical energy
and hence are examples (tokens, species) of
conformons
(Ji 2000) (Chap.
8
)
.
The key features of this model is that the thermal cycle of the earth's surface
produce conformons in primitive RNA templates, which can drive the synthesis of RNA fragments
that are complementary to a portion of the templates, the repetition of which leads to a complete
replication of some RNA templates but not others. Conformons are equivalent to frustrations
entrapped in sequence-specific loci in primordial biopolymers (Reproduced from Ji 1991)
group at Princeton (Fig.
13.2
). The
Princetonator
contains the following key
postulates (Ji 1991, pp. 224-225):
1. On the surface of the primordial earth about 3.5 billion years ago, there existed
a pool (often called the “primordial soup”) of at least two short biopolymers,
A and B, most likely RNA molecules.
2. Due to thermal cycling (caused by the daily rotation of the earth or other cyclic
motions on the earth such as tidal waves), the components of the primordial soup
underwent periodic binding (e.g., due to low temperature; see Steps 3, 6, and 8 in
Fig.
13.3
) and de-binding (e.g., due to high temperature; see Step 10) processes.
3. During the low temperature phase, some biopolymers form a complete
intramolecular binding (see B after Step 3) and some others form an incomplete
intramolecular binding due to the presence of frustrations (see the bulge in
A after Step 3) entrapping a part (
D
E) of the total energy flux, (E
1
-E
2
), through
