Emergence of Light-Driven Protometabolism upon Recruitment of a Photocatalytic Cofactor by a Self-Replicator

This work shows how a designed co-factor can be recruited and activated by a self-replicator to do photo-redox catalysis and generate the precursors from which the self-replicator can grow. It constitutes an important step in the direction of the de-novo synthesis of life by intergrating self-replication with a protometabolism.