{"record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"8e6aa484c0a02f809ca09a70ea9830a6f9ffa0a658406ae32416fb5ed085a29e","created":"2026-10-03T07:17:57Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":[],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["5475cf5dc5b1a72283d26dc95dc6e00d7ea4e00096a7c6492e409a1816eeb011","d2d536ffa9284b6d2d2e98b89fed01b07118433274c0382f778af59853186d9f"],"salt":"0fb3df433c7a5451be2ec4567e6b37863a1240c37cebb2ceb48383b830844336","schema":"pubphys.record/2","site":"pubphys.com","target":null,"type":"revision"},"content":{"answer_type":"mechanism","assisted_by":[],"external_id":"bio.origin-of-life.error-threshold-paradox","kind":"well-posed","literature_status":"partially-resolved","n":"1","parents":[{"note":"","parent_revision":"d2d536ffa9284b6d2d2e98b89fed01b07118433274c0382f778af59853186d9f","relation":"special_case"}],"plain":"Copying without enzymes is sloppy, so only short sequences survive copying errors, yet an accurate copying enzyme needs a sequence long enough to encode it. A 2026 RNA enzyme only 45 letters long narrowed this gap, and which mechanism kept genetic information intact over many generations is still open.","posed_since":"1971","precise":"With nonenzymatic copying fidelity $q \\sim 0.9\\ \\text{to}\\ 0.99$ per nucleotide, $L_{\\mathrm{max}} \\sim \\operatorname{ln}(\\sigma)/(1 - q)$ is tens to about a hundred nucleotides; polymerase ribozymes derived from the class I ligase are about 200 nucleotides long, while the 45-nucleotide QT45 ribozyme (Science 2026) copies at $q = 0.941$, giving $L_{\\mathrm{max}} \\sim 17 \\operatorname{ln}(\\sigma)$. Find a mechanism (compartments with group selection, hypercycles, template-directed ligation of short oligomers, spatial structure on surfaces) that maintains information content exceeding $L_{\\mathrm{max}}$ over many replication rounds, stable against parasitic sequences, for a replicase that copies itself from mononucleotides or mixed-length feedstocks, with parameters measured in prebiotic chemistry.","problem_ref":null,"references":"","settled_by":"A quantitative model with experimentally measured copying, ligation and compartment-division rates showing maintained information above $L_{\\mathrm{max}}$, ideally confirmed in an experiment.","status_note":"A 45-nucleotide polymerase ribozyme (2026) brought the replicator size close to the error threshold; maintenance against parasites over many rounds has not been demonstrated.","title":"Escape from Eigen's paradox for prebiotic genomes","topic_ref":"819c3cf4ef1ce5d66c72a382f1081518f28c7f8a56681c740fe7338f60746ab9"},"attested":{"attestation":{"batch":null,"client_id":null,"id_token_sha256":null,"kind":"platform"},"record_hash":"8aaed1dcd560a600129acd0dd86a97cd9c23220db52fd17487162a2763690a12","schema":"pubphys.attested/1"},"envelope":{"attested_hash":"e6e5df5f0bfa0bad23d6c4e3ed3982dbcd727c2913f09c5238355b0af15d6941","platform_signature":{"key_id":"c6afc19b31429869751f06879c75cd64ea92654423d15b44be775bf1310a60da","sig":"0jhoBspuutK7SZredk1Z1ilszXAUjcNo6bI_JvKOkIyqzs3v-cocUAQHtQG5qr2MwOr4xNK8u8JJHdYMujhYDA"},"schema":"pubphys.envelope/1"},"record_hash":"8aaed1dcd560a600129acd0dd86a97cd9c23220db52fd17487162a2763690a12","leaf_index":815}