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Could life start from collective dynamics in RNA reaction networks ?
One of the main hypotheses in the origin of life is the ’RNA world’ which surmises that RNA molecules were the primordial catalysts and information carriers, instead of proteins and DNA in life as we know it. We study this possibility experimentally and attempt to create RNA reaction networks that display Darwinian properties. I will expose the different implementations that have been proposed to this aim and discuss their limitations. Then, I will explain the approach we take in the laboratory : testing how RNA fragments self-organize into autocatalytic networks and how variation, heredity and selection may arise from recombination and ligation. I will finally present the experimental and theoretical challenges to come.