Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Conditions on Early Earth02:06

Conditions on Early Earth

91.8K
Around 4 billion years ago, oceans began to condense on earth while volcanic eruptions released nitrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, and hydrogen into the primordial atmosphere. However, organisms with the characteristics of life were not initially present on earth. Scientists have used experimentation to determine how organisms evolved that could grow, reproduce, and maintain an internal environment.
91.8K
Bacterial RNA Polymerase00:43

Bacterial RNA Polymerase

29.5K
Unlike eukaryotes, bacteria use a single RNA Polymerase (RNAP) to transcribe all genes. The different subunits of bacterial RNAPhave distinct functions. The multisubunit structure of the bacterial RNAP helps the enzyme to maintain catalytic function, facilitate assembly, interact with DNA and RNA, and self-regulate its activity.
In most genes, the transcription site is a single base present upstream of the coding sequence. Though RNAP is a catalytically efficient enzyme, it does not recognize...
29.5K
ATP and Macromolecule Synthesis01:28

ATP and Macromolecule Synthesis

5.6K
Biological macromolecules are organic compounds, predominantly composed of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are covalently bonded with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and other minor elements. There are four major biological macromolecule classes: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
Most macromolecules are composed of single subunits, or building blocks, called monomers. The monomers combine with each other using covalent bonds to form larger molecules known as polymers.
Conversion of...
5.6K
Cationic Chain-Growth Polymerization: Mechanism00:57

Cationic Chain-Growth Polymerization: Mechanism

2.3K
The cationic polymerization mechanism consists of three steps: initiation, propagation, and termination. In the initiation step of the polymerization process, the π bond of a monomer gets protonated by the Lewis acid catalyst, which is formed from boron trifluoride and water. The protonation of the π bond generates a carbocation stabilized by the electron‐donating group. In the propagation step, the π bond of the second monomer acts as a nucleophile and attacks the...
2.3K
Proofreading01:31

Proofreading

6.3K
Synthesis of new DNA molecules is carried out by the enzyme DNA polymerase, which adds nucleotides on the daughter strand complementary to the template DNA strand. DNA polymerase has a higher affinity to add the correct base and ensures fidelity during DNA replication. Furthermore,  it exhibits proofreading activity during replication, using an exonuclease domain that cuts off incorrect nucleotides from the nascent DNA strand.
Errors During Replication are Corrected by the DNA Polymerase...
6.3K
Free-Radical Chain Reaction and Polymerization of Alkenes02:35

Free-Radical Chain Reaction and Polymerization of Alkenes

7.8K
The conversion of alkenes to macromolecules called polymers is a reaction of high commercial importance. The structure of the polymer is defined by a repeating unit, while the terminal groups are considered insignificant. The average degree of polymerization represents the number of repeating units in the polymer molecule and is denoted by the subscript n.
7.8K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Fitness advantage of sequential metabolic strategies emerges from community interactions in strongly fluctuating environments.

PLoS computational biology·2026
Same author

Structural and compositional complexities of hierarchical self-assembly: A hypergraph approach.

The Journal of chemical physics·2026
Same author

Intrinsic OASL expression governs heterogeneity in interferon induction during influenza A virus infection.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2025
Same author

Single-cell heterogeneity in interferon induction potential is heritable and governed by variation in cell state.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025
Same author

Coarse-grained model of serial dilution dynamics in synthetic human gut microbiome.

PLoS computational biology·2025
Same author

Arbitrary Design of DNA-Programmable 3D Crystals through Symmetry Mapping.

ACS nano·2025
Same journal

Non-canonical amino acid incorporation enables minimally disruptive labeling of stress granule and TDP-43 proteinopathy.

eLife·2026
Same journal

Analysis of dendritic input currents during place field dynamics.

eLife·2026
Same journal

TopoMetry systematically learns and evaluates the latent geometry of single-cell data.

eLife·2026
Same journal

Navigating the path: Advice to physician-scientists on choosing a clinical specialty.

eLife·2026
Same journal

Neural activity profiles reveal overlapping, intermingled subpopulations spanning area borders in mouse sensorimotor cortex.

eLife·2026
Same journal

The exquisite mechanics of a tsetse bite.

eLife·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 29, 2025

Curation of Computational Chemical Libraries Demonstrated with Alpha-Amino Acids
08:21

Curation of Computational Chemical Libraries Demonstrated with Alpha-Amino Acids

Published on: April 13, 2022

2.6K

Emergence of catalytic function in prebiotic information-coding polymers.

Alexei V Tkachenko1, Sergei Maslov2,3,4

  • 1Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, United States.

Elife
|March 26, 2024
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Prebiotic oligomers evolved sequence-specific cleavage, a key catalytic function. This emergence from simple replication bridges information-first origins with complex autocatalytic systems.

Keywords:
cleavageevolutionary biologyheteropolymersnoneorgin of liferibozymetemplated replication

More Related Videos

DNA Polymerase Activity Assay Using Near-infrared Fluorescent Labeled DNA Visualized by Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis
07:38

DNA Polymerase Activity Assay Using Near-infrared Fluorescent Labeled DNA Visualized by Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis

Published on: October 6, 2017

14.1K
DNA-Tethered RNA Polymerase for Programmable In vitro Transcription and Molecular Computation
09:26

DNA-Tethered RNA Polymerase for Programmable In vitro Transcription and Molecular Computation

Published on: December 29, 2021

4.2K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 29, 2025

Curation of Computational Chemical Libraries Demonstrated with Alpha-Amino Acids
08:21

Curation of Computational Chemical Libraries Demonstrated with Alpha-Amino Acids

Published on: April 13, 2022

2.6K
DNA Polymerase Activity Assay Using Near-infrared Fluorescent Labeled DNA Visualized by Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis
07:38

DNA Polymerase Activity Assay Using Near-infrared Fluorescent Labeled DNA Visualized by Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis

Published on: October 6, 2017

14.1K
DNA-Tethered RNA Polymerase for Programmable In vitro Transcription and Molecular Computation
09:26

DNA-Tethered RNA Polymerase for Programmable In vitro Transcription and Molecular Computation

Published on: December 29, 2021

4.2K

Area of Science:

  • Origin of Life Studies
  • Biochemistry
  • Systems Chemistry

Background:

  • Biological polymers perform essential catalytic and information processing roles.
  • Prebiotic systems likely involved information-coding oligomers capable of replication.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To present a plausible pathway for prebiotic oligomers to acquire catalytic cleavage activity.
  • To demonstrate the emergence and proliferation of catalytic function in a self-replicating system.

Main Methods:

  • Modeling a system of prebiotic information-coding oligomers undergoing non-enzymatic templated replication.
  • Analyzing the effects of spontaneous and catalyzed sequence-specific cleavage on oligomer proliferation.
  • Simulating evolutionary selection of cooperative catalytic networks.

Main Results:

  • Spontaneous cleavage promotes proliferation by generating primers.
  • A cooperative catalytic network of four oligomer subpopulations emerged through evolution.
  • Catalytic efficiency increased under evolutionary pressure, requiring rate enhancement of 10^2-10^3.

Conclusions:

  • Catalytic cleavage function can naturally emerge in prebiotic replicating systems.
  • Functional differentiation of oligomers into catalysts and substrates is key.
  • This mechanism links information-first origin scenarios to autocatalytic systems via cleavage.