100th Anniversary of Macromolecular Science Viewpoint: Toward Artificial Life-Supporting Macromolecules

Abstract

Terrestrial Life is based on polymers. In all known living organisms, DNA stores genetic information, mutates, self-replicates, and guides the synthesis of messenger molecules. Although the function of nucleic acids is well-understood, the development of artificial macromolecular mimics remains very limited. Laboratory-synthesized nucleic acids still support Life, and some nucleic acids analogues exhibit biological functions. Yet, after hundred years of polymer science, no other type of Life-supporting macromolecule (i.e., non-nucleic acids) has ever been reported. In this context, the aim of the present viewpoint is to discuss important challenges that shall be addressed by polymer chemists to achieve artificial Life. Similarly to DNA, an artificial Life-supporting macromolecule shall store information, transfer information, and mutate. Many tools, such as sequence-defined polymer synthesis, polymer modification, supramolecular polymer chemistry, and dynamic chemistry, are already available to chemists to attain these properties. However, the design of artificial Life-supporting macromolecules is hindered by two main factors. First, the chemical search space is enormous, and it is difficult to predict promising structures, even with the help of combinatorial and chemoinformatic tools. Second, rational design is probably a limited approach to achieve macromolecules that shall be involved in nonequilibrium metabolic systems. Hence, a synergic combination of classical polymer chemistry with the more recent field of systems chemistry is probably the key toward the emergence of artificial Life-supporting macromolecules.

Supramolecular assembly of DNA-constructed vesicles

“…[8][9][10][11][12] Merging purely artificial DNA nucleotide surrogates with natural DNA nucleotides lead to DNA conjugates and the resulting functional supramolecular assemblies have recently gained much attention in the fields of nanotechnology and materials science. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Such functional supramolecular polymers feature properties beyond the classical role of DNA in biological systems, with applications in optoelectronic devices, drug delivery systems, and diagnostics to name a few. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] However, vesicular morphologies are predominantly reported from lipid-DNA conjugates or DNA functionalized liposomes, [29][30][31][32][33][34] while the field apart from lipid-based DNA constructs remains largely unexplored.…”

Precise Alkoxyamine Design to Enable Automated Tandem Mass Spectrometry Sequencing of Digital Poly(phosphodiester)s

“…These results further indicate that precise macromolecular engineering is a key strategy for improving the storage properties of digital macromolecules. Consequently, the performances of non‐natural informational polymers may soon equal or even surpass those of biological polymers [34] …”

Introductory Chapter: Polypropylene - Synthesis and Functionalization

“…Well-defined polymers with narrow polydispersity and controlled molecular weight are essential to delineate the structure-property relationship of polymeric materials [6]. Using N,N-diethyl hafnium derivative as active transition metal propagation center and ZnEt 2 as metal alkyl chain transfer agent, Sita first demonstrated the living coordinative chain transfer polymerization of propene to produce amorphous atactic polypropylene (a-PP) with narrow polydispersity and various molecular weights from 12.6 kDa to 111 kDa [7].…”