On being the right size

The first replicating molecules were probably composed of RNA and undoubtedly small, limited in size by a self-destructing error rate. A new study shows that a relatively minor increase in replication fidelity may have had a large effect on the size, and hence complexity, of early replicators.

• Publication year

  2005

• Venue

  Nature Genetics

• Publication date

  2005-09-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/ng0905-923PMID 16132047PMCID 7097767
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Real ribozymes suggest a relaxed error threshold

  2005cited by this paper
• Life: In search of the simplest cell

  2005cited by this paper
• Modern mRNA Proofreading and Repair: Clues that the Last Universal Common Ancestor Possessed an RNA Genome?

  2005cited by this paper
• RNA virus error catastrophe: Direct molecular test by using ribavirin

  2001cited by this paper
• Group selection of early replicators and the origin of life.

  1987cited by this paper
• Origin of life: The RNA world

  1986cited by this paper
• Selforganization of matter and the evolution of biological macromolecules

  1971cited by this paper
• Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid

  1953cited by this paper
• A production of amino acids under possible primitive earth conditions.

  1953cited by this paper

• A Theory of Inference Compute Scaling: Reasoning through Directed Stochastic Skill Search

  2025cites this paper
• Sexual Size Dimorphism in Rays and Skates (Elasmobranchii: Batoidea)

  2025cites this paper
• Arrested coarsening, oscillations, and memory from a conserved phase separating nucleator in a self-straining cytoskeletal network

  2025cites this paper
• Which Body Size Metrics Should Be Used for Assessing Temperature Impacts on Fish Growth and Size?

  2025cites this paper
• Automated bail-in: eliminating regulatory restraints

  2025cites this paper
• Sex performance differences in vertical and horizontal jumping

  2025cites this paper
• Dropping Marbles from the Empire State Building

  2025cites this paper
• Ecophysical constraints on avian adaptation and diversification.

  2025cites this paper
• Sexual Size Dimorphism Depends Drastically on Environment: The Case Study in Ground Beetles

  2025cites this paper
• Brassinosteroid controls leaf air space patterning non-cell autonomously by promoting epidermal growth

  2025cites this paper
• The geometry of life: testing the scaling of whole-organism surface area and volume using sharks

  2025cites this paper
• AI Governance as scale work: synthetic journalism across scalar collisions

  2025cites this paper
• Body size is a better predictor of intra- than interspecific variation of animal stoichiometry across realms

  2024cites this paper
• An Information Theory of Compute-Optimal Size Scaling, Emergence, and Plateaus in Language Models

  2024cites this paper
• Environment‐ and system‐specific interactions between population and trait dynamics

  2024cites this paper
• An evolutionary optimum amid moderate heritability in prokaryotic cell size.

  2024cites this paper
• Integrating Evolutionary Biology into Physics Classroom: Scaling, Dimension, Form and Function

  2024cites this paper
• Dynamic similarity and the peculiar allometry of maximum running speed

  2024cites this paper
• From cell size and first principles to structure and function of unicellular plankton communities

  2023cites this paper
• Allometry: revealing evolution's engineering principles.

  2023cites this paper
• An evolutionary optimum amid moderate heritability in prokaryotic cell size

  2023cites this paper
• On being the wrong size, or the role of body mass in fish kills and hypoxia exposure

  2023cites this paper
• Clashing Scales and Accelerated Change

  2023cites this paper
• The bumpy road ahead: the role of substrate roughness on animal walking and a proposed comparative metric.

  2023cites this paper
• Cytoplasmic stirring by active carpets

  2023cites this paper
• Length control of long cell protrusions: Rulers, timers and transport

  2022cites this paper
• Evaluating the taphonomic consistency of microvertebrate assemblages at Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming, USA

  2022cites this paper
• Efficient Large-Scale and Scarless Genome Engineering Enables the Construction and Screening of Bacillus subtilis Biofuel Overproducers

  2022cites this paper
• Do field collected immature stages of Aedes mosquitoes exhibit correspondence of the life-history traits? Observations from Kolkata, India

  2022cites this paper
• Evolution of gliding in squirrel‐related rodents (Mammalia: Sciuromorpha) did not induce a new optimum on the cortical thickness of the scapular glenoid fossa

  2022cites this paper
• On having the right size laboratories

  2022cites this paper
• Functional Regionalization in the Fly Eye as an Adaptation to Habitat Structure

  2022cites this paper
• From Scalability to Subsidiarity in Addressing Online Harm

  2022cites this paper
• Mechanical Feedback Control for Multicellular Tissue Size Maintenance: A Minireview

  2022cites this paper
• Lie for me: the intent to deceive fails to scale up

  2022cites this paper
• Reassessing growth and mortality estimates for the Ordovician trilobite Triarthrus eatoni

  2022cites this paper
• The technical non-reproducibility of the Earth system: Scale, Biosphere 2, and T.C. Boyle’s Terranauts

  2021cites this paper
• Some thoughts on Biodiversity and Sustainability

  2021influential citation
• Do Monkeys and Chimpanzees Climb the Same Way? A Kinematic Analysis of the Upper Limb During Vertical Climbing in a Wild Monkey (Cercocebus atys) and Ape (Pan troglodytes)

  2021cites this paper
• Current Development in Interdigital Transducer (IDT) Surface Acoustic Wave Devices for Live Cell In Vitro Studies: A Review

  2021cites this paper
• Flagellar length control in multiflagellated eukaryotes: a case study with Giardia

  2021cites this paper
• Convergent evolution of skin surface microarchitecture and increased skin hydrophobicity in semi-aquatic anole lizards

  2021cites this paper
• Mechanisms for Mid-Air Reorientation Using Tail Rotation in Gliding Geckos

  2021cites this paper
• The Effect of Harvesting Adults on the Evolution of Reproduction Age Via Density-Dependent Juvenile Mortality

  2021influential citation
• Theoretical Constraints Imposed by Gradient Detection and Dispersal on Microbial Size in Astrobiological Environments

  2021cites this paper
• Clutch quality is related to embryonic development duration, hatchling body size and telomere length in the spined toad (Bufo spinosus)

  2021cites this paper
• Taming the tyranny of scales: models and scale in the geosciences

  2021cites this paper
• Deriving Population Scaling Rules from Individual-Level Metabolism and Life History Traits

  2021cites this paper
• Toward a Continuous-Matter Philosophy

  2021cites this paper
• Body size adaptions under climate change: zooplankton community more important than temperature or food abundance in model of a zooplanktivorous fish

  2020cites this paper
• Reclaiming Warburg: using developmental biology to gain insight into human metabolic diseases

  2020cites this paper
• Teaching the mathematics that teachers need to know: Classroom ideas for supporting prospective elementary teachers’ development of mathematical knowledge for teaching

  2020cites this paper
• Comparability in evolutionary biology: The case of Darwin’s barnacles

  2020cites this paper
• The Impact of Errors in Infant Development: Falling Like a Baby.

  2020cites this paper
• Responsive Molecular Systems through Dynamic Covalent Chemistry

  2020cites this paper
• Relational processes between people and place: Understanding environmental interest and identity through a learning ecosystem lens

  2020cites this paper
• Full Flight Envelope and Trim Map of Flapping-Wing Micro Aerial Vehicles

  2020cites this paper
• Planktivorous fish and environmental change: using mechanistic modelling to explore the underpinnings and general validity of expected responses

  2020cites this paper
• Global asymptotic stability of the active disassembly model of flagellar length control

  2020cites this paper
• On scale and size

  2020cites this paper
• Level crossing statistics in a biologically motivated model of a long dynamic protrusion: passage times, random and extreme excursions

  2020cites this paper
• Length fluctuations of long cell protrusions: statistics of passage times, random and extremal excursions

  2020cites this paper
• Getting around the cell: physical transport in the intracellular world

  2020cites this paper
• Body size, time and dimensions of oxygen diffusion.

  2020cites this paper
• ERK signalling: a master regulator of cell behaviour, life and fate

  2020cites this paper
• From Fictional Disagreements to Thought Experiments

  2020cites this paper
• Lunge filter feeding biomechanics constrain rorqual foraging ecology across scale

  2020cites this paper
• Genomic signatures of extreme body size divergence in baboons

  2019cites this paper
• Mathematical Methods in the Earth and Environmental Sciences

  2019cites this paper
• Model-Based Design, Control, and Planning for Legged Microrobots

  2019cites this paper
• Analysis of Effects of Multiple Environmental Factors on Early Life-history for Growth and Stress Accumulation Using a Dynamic-state-dependent Model

  2019cites this paper
• Jumping dynamics of aquatic animals

  2019cites this paper
• Anuran 3D models reveal the relationship between surface area‐to‐volume ratio and climate

  2019cites this paper
• Computer Simulations of Continuous Flow Peritoneal Dialysis Using the 3-Pore Model—a First Experience

  2019cites this paper
• Cellular and Molecular Basis of Mitochondrial Inheritance

  2019cites this paper
• Unpacking the Learning Ecosystems Framework: Lessons from the Adaptive Management of Biological Ecosystems

  2019cites this paper
• Insights into Body Size Evolution: A Comparative Transcriptome Study on Three Species of Asian Sisoridae Catfish

  2019cites this paper
• Crinoid respiration and the distribution of energetic strategies among marine invertebrates

  2019cites this paper
• Are the major global banks now safer? Structural continuities and change in banking and finance since the 2008 crisis

  2018cites this paper
• Dynamic traversal of large gaps by insects and legged robots reveals a template

  2018cites this paper
• Cellular Control of Time, Size, and Shape in Development and Evolution

  2018cites this paper
• The Natural Selection of Metabolism Explains Curvature in Fossil Body Mass Evolution

  2018cites this paper
• How to Make a Rodent Giant: Genomic Basis and Tradeoffs of Gigantism in the Capybara, the World’s Largest Rodent

  2018cites this paper
• Crossing the Air-Water Interface: Inspiration from Nature

  2018cites this paper
• Changing invaders: trends of gigantism in insular introduced rats

  2018cites this paper
• Growth dynamics and size determination in Hydra

  2018cites this paper
• APT: A Practical Tunneling Architecture for Routing Scalability

  2018cites this paper
• Effect of curvature on wetting and dewetting of proboscises of butterflies and moths

  2018cites this paper
• Living off the Sun: chlorophylls, bacteriochlorophylls and rhodopsins

  2018cites this paper
• A trait-based approach to ocean ecology

  2018cites this paper
• ‘On being the right size’ – Do aliens follow the rules?

  2018cites this paper
• Theoretical and experimental study on the nymphal growth of the Australian field cricket (Insecta: Orthoptera)

  2018cites this paper
• A DNA metasystematic approach to forest restoration in the Northern Zone of Costa Rica

  2018cites this paper
• Transition by head-on collision: mechanically mediated manoeuvres in cockroaches and small robots

  2018cites this paper
• On Being the Right Size as an Animal with Plastids

  2017cites this paper
• Is cell size a spandrel?

  2017cites this paper
• Hierarchical complexity and the size limits of life

  2017cites this paper
• Is cell size a spandrel? The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters

  2017cites this paper
• Filogeografía, filogenia y especiación críptica en los Hormogastridae

  2017cites this paper
• Allometry of wing twist and camber in a flower chafer during free flight: How do wing deformations scale with body size?

  2017cites this paper