Kinetic Selection of Template Polymer with Complex Sequences

TL;DR

This study investigates how non-equilibrium flow rates influence the selection of complex polymer sequences during template-directed polymerization, shedding light on the origins of life's molecular complexity.

Contribution

It introduces a kinetic model demonstrating how flow rate controls the emergence of complex polymer sequences in prebiotic chemistry.

Findings

Slower flow rates favor complex sequence selection.

Sequence dominance changes dynamically with flow rate.

Kinetic factors influence polymer complexity in non-equilibrium conditions.

Abstract

Emergence and maintenance of polymers with complex sequences is a major question in the study of origins of life. To answer this, we studied a model polymerization reaction, where polymers are synthesized by stepwise ligation from two types of monomers, catalyzed by a long polymer as a template. Direct stochastic simulation and dynamical systems analysis revealed that the most dominant polymer sequence in a population successively changes against the flow rate of monomer to the system. The slower the flow, the more is the complex sequence selected. We discuss the relevance of this kinetic selection of sequence by the non-equilibrium flow rate to the origin of complex polymers.