A Necessary Condition for Coexistence of Autocatalytic Replicators in a Prebiotic Environment

Life

Andres F. Hernandez¹ 

[1] School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA; E-Mail

关键词: chemical evolution;    coexistence;    diversity;    replicator;    prebiotic;   

DOI  :  10.3390/life3030403

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

A necessary, but not sufficient, mathematical condition for the coexistence of short replicating species is presented here. The mathematical condition is obtained for a prebiotic environment, simulated as a fed-batch reactor, which combines monomer recycling, variable reaction order and a fixed monomer inlet flow with two replicator types and two monomer types. An extensive exploration of the parameter space in the model validates the robustness and efficiency of the mathematical condition, with nearly 1.7% of parameter sets meeting the condition and half of those exhibiting sustained coexistence. The results show that it is possible to generate a condition of coexistence, where two replicators sustain a linear growth simultaneously for a wide variety of chemistries, under an appropriate environment. The presence of multiple monomer types is critical to sustaining the coexistence of multiple replicator types.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.