The concept of chemically evolvable replicators is central
to abiogenesis.
Chemical evolvability requires three essential components: energy-harvesting
mechanisms for nonequilibrium dissipation, kinetically asymmetric
replication and decomposition pathways, and structure-dependent selective
templating in the autocatalytic cycles. We observed a UVA light-fueled
chemical system displaying sequence-dependent replication and replicator
decomposition. The system was constructed with primitive peptidic
foldamer components. The photocatalytic formation–recombination
cycle of thiyl radicals was coupled with the molecular recognition
steps in the replication cycles. Thiyl radical-mediated chain reaction
was responsible for the replicator death mechanism. The competing
and kinetically asymmetric replication and decomposition processes
led to light intensity-dependent selection far from equilibrium. Here,
we show that this system can dynamically adapt to energy influx and
seeding. The results highlight that mimicking chemical evolution is
feasible with primitive building blocks and simple chemical reactions.