松原 嘉哉さん（The University of Chicago）を招いて、ELSI seminarをしていただきました。

Title: Robustness of collectively coded information

The inheritance of genetic information is crucial for the origins of life. Modern life relies on replicating long oligonucleotides like DNA, but this mechanism faces challenges in prebiotic conditions without evolved enzymes. Some hypotheses propose that short oligomers could collectively transmit information, but this lacks experimental and computational validation. Here, we demonstrate that cooperation among such oligomers can suppress mutations. We designed short DNA oligomers encompassing information from a "virtual circular genome." These oligomers have overlapping bases, functioning as both primers and templates in primer extension under thermal cycling. Experiments and simulations showed that mutant oligomers replicate slower than wild types due to a "binding partner effect," where wild-type oligomers are more likely to have partners for extension. Our findings highlight the benefits of collectively encoding genomic information in the origins of life context.