Emergence of information transmission in a prebiotic RNA reactor
  A poorly understood step in the transition from a chemical to a biological world is the emergence of self-replicating molecular systems. We study how a precursor for such a replicator might arise in a hydrothermal RNA reactor, which accumulates longer sequences from unbiased monomer influx and random ligation. In the reactor, intra- and inter-molecular basepairing locally protects from random cleavage. By analyzing stochastic simulations, we find temporal sequence correlations that constitute a signature of information transmission, weaker but of the same form as in a true replicator. 
B. Obermayer, H. Krammer, D. Braun, U. Gerland
q-bio.BM physics.bio-ph q-bio.PE