Supramolecular replication

The following sections contain a review of many of the varied synthetic systems that have been developed to date utilising noncovalent interactions to form assembhes of molecules. These sections are loosely demarcated according to the most important type of noncovalent interactions utilized in conferring supramolecular order (ie, van der Waal s interactions, electrostatic interactions, and hydrogen bonds). For extensive reviews, see References 1,2,4—6,22,46,49,110—112. Finally, the development of self-assembling, self-replicating synthetic systems is noted. 

Analytical chemistry having an interdisciplinary character cannot set aside the attractive power and advances of supramolecular chemistry - the chemistry beyond the molecule or the chemistry of molecular assemblies and of intermolecular bonds as defined by Jean-Marie Lehn, who won the Nobel Prize in 1987. Recognition, reactivity, and transport, as well as self-assembly, self-organization and self-replication are the basic functional features of supramolecular species and chemistry. 

Attempts have recently been made to link the RNA world with the lipid world. Two groups involved in RNA and ribozyme research joined up with an expert on membrane biophysics (Szostak et al., 2001). They developed a model for the formation of the first protocells which takes into account both the most recent experimental results on replication systems and the self-organisation processes of amphiphilic substances to give supramolecular structures. 

Self-replication, in supramolecular chemistry, 24 49-50 Self-rising flours, 26 281-282, 283 Self-sensing, in rheometers, 21 737 Self-supporting structures, artificial graphite in, 12 745 Self-warming baby milk bottle... 

Self-assembly, self-recognition and replication may involve chiral components, as discussed on several instances above. This leads to some more general considerations about the role of molecular chirality in supramolecular species. 

Protein formation, DNA replication, enzyme catalysis, indeed most biological activities, occur on the scale between 10 and 100 nm. The molecules are prepared rapidly, specifically and with hardly any errors. The only problem is that not all the materials or objects we wish to prepare on this scale are found in the natural world. Here is where supramolecular chemistry steps in. 

So, how close have supramolecular chemists come to realizing a self-replicating system The answer is not too close. There are few chemists currently working on the problem from a perspective of a system based on supramolecular chemistry. One requirement of any system designed to perpetuate information is that it must encode a large amount of information. In the DNA/RNA system it is in the form of... 

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