First Advisor

Niles Lehman

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Chemistry and University Honors

Department

Chemistry

Subjects

RNA, Genetic recombination, Game theory, Molecular dynamics

DOI

10.15760/honors.311

Abstract

Origins of life research requires searching for a plausible transition from simple chemicals to larger macromolecules that can both hold information and catalyze their own production. It has been shown that some classes of RNA molecules possess the ability to help other RNA molecules form by recombination reactions in an auto-catalytic fashion.1 By simplifying these recombination reactions, the thermodynamic binding strength between two nucleotides of two molecules can be quantified for all 16 possible genotype combinations. The purpose of this research is to provide evidence that the thermodynamic binding strength between the tag and internal guide sequence (IGS) is correlated to the catalytic ability of the ribozyme, or the specific relationship between various tag and IGS base pair combinations.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/17412

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