Assembly‐driven protection from hydrolysis as key selective force during chemical evolution

Abstract

The origins of biopolymers pose some of the most fascinating questions in prebiotic chemistry. The marvelous assembly proficiencies of biopolymers suggest they are winners of a competitive evolutionary process. Molecular assembly is ubiquitous in life and in abiotic systems and is often emergent upon polymerization. We focus on the influence of molecular assemblies on hydrolysis rates in aqueous media, and suggest that assembly was crucial for biopolymer selection. We suggest that incremental enrichment of some molecular species over others during chemical evolution was partially driven by interplay of kinetics of synthesis and hydrolysis. We document the general attenuation of hydrolysis by assembly of biopolymers and highlight the likely role of assembly in survival of the ‘fittest’ molecules during chemical evolution.