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RNA and proteins joined up at the Origins of Life: Persistence is the point

Swailem, M.; Dill, K.

2026-07-11 biophysics
10.64898/2026.07.09.737588 bioRxiv
Show abstract

What drove nucleic acids (NA) to associate with proteins (PR) at the Origins of Life? We reason from polymer physics and the Central Dogma (CD) that the fitness value of cooperating through a division of labor - NA for replication fidelity and PR for functional fitness - is much higher than for either polymer alone. Our model shows a Pareto Front, where NA and PR can bootstrap each other to achieve autocatalytic cooperativity towards biology.

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