In Test Tubes, RNA Molecules Evolve Into a Tiny Ecosystem

[Pro Plyd]

Longish article

https://www.quantamagazine.org/in-test-tubes-rna-molecules-evolve-into-a-tiny-ecosystem-20220505/

When researchers gave a genetic molecule the ability to replicate, it evolved
over time into a complex network of “hosts” and “parasites” that both
competed and cooperated to survive.

After a lengthy experiment with tantalizing implications for origin-of-life
studies, a research group in Japan has reported creating a test tube world of
molecules that spontaneously evolved both complexity and, surprisingly,
cooperation. Over hundreds of hours of replication, a single type of RNA
evolved into five different molecular “species” or lineages of hosts and
parasites that coexisted in harmony and cooperated to survive, like the
beginning of a “molecular version of an ecosystem,” said Ryo Mizuuchi, the
lead author of the study and a project assistant professor at the University
of Tokyo.

Their experiment, which confirmed previous theoretical findings, showed
that molecules with the means to replicate could spontaneously develop
complexity through Darwinian evolution, “a critical step for the emergence
of life,” the researchers wrote.
...


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29113-x
Evolutionary transition from a single RNA replicator to a
multiple replicator network

Abstract
In prebiotic evolution, self-replicating molecules are believed to have
evolved
into complex living systems by expanding their information and functions
open-endedly. Theoretically, such evolutionary complexification could occur
through successive appearance of novel replicators that interact with one
another to form replication networks. Here we perform long-term evolution
experiments of RNA that replicates using a self-encoded RNA replicase. The
RNA diversifies into multiple coexisting host and parasite lineages, whose
frequencies in the population initially fluctuate and gradually stabilize.
The
final population, comprising five RNA lineages, forms a replicator network
with diverse interactions, including cooperation to help the replication
of all
other members. These results support the capability of molecular replicators
to spontaneously develop complexity through Darwinian evolution, a critical
step for the emergence of life.