Spiegelman's Monster
Monstruo de Spiegelman
- Date
- 1965 · confidence high
- Place
- Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, United States
- Credited to
- Sol Spiegelman
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
An RNA chain of only 218 nucleotides able to self-replicate via the enzyme RNA replicase, obtained through directed evolution in Sol Spiegelman's laboratory as a minimal model of molecular replication.
What it led to
- a reference point in origin-of-life and RNA-world research
- spurred directed in vitro molecular evolution experiments
- a model for studying natural selection at the molecular level