Reversible Switching of Cooperating Replicators.

How can molecules with short lifetimes preserve their information over millions of years? For evolution to occur, information-carrying molecules have to replicate before they degrade. Our experiments reveal a robust, reversible cooperation mechanism in oligonucleotide replication. Two inherently slow replicating hairpin molecules can transfer their information to fast crossbreed replicators that outgrow the hairpins. The reverse is also possible. When one replication initiation site is missing, single hairpins reemerge from the crossbreed. With this mechanism, interacting replicators can switch between the hairpin and crossbreed mode, revealing a flexible adaptation to different boundary conditions.