Fig. 1.

Scheme for cross-catalytic replication of RNA enzymes. (A) The enzyme E′ (gray) catalyzes ligation of substrates A and B (black) to form the enzyme E, while E catalyzes ligation of A′ and B′ to form E′. The two enzymes dissociate to provide copies of both E and E′ that each can catalyze another reaction. (B) Sequence and secondary structure of the complex formed between the cross-replicating RNA enzyme and its two substrates (E′, A, and B are shown; E, A′, and B′ are the reciprocal). Curved arrow indicates the site of ligation. Boxed residues indicate the sites of critical wobble pairs that provide enhanced catalytic activity compared to the parental R3C ligase.