scholarly journals Mathematical modeling reveals spontaneous emergence of self-replication in chemical reaction systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 293 (49) ◽  
pp. 18854-18863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Liu ◽  
David J. T. Sumpter
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Modeling ◽  
Chemical Reaction ◽  
Reaction Systems ◽  
Chemical Reaction Systems ◽  
Self Replication

scholarly journals Spontaneous emergence of self-replication in chemical reaction systems

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Liu ◽  
David Sumpter
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Reaction ◽  
Citric Acid Cycle ◽  
Side Reactions ◽  
Prebiotic Evolution ◽  
Acid Cycle ◽  
Reaction Systems ◽  
Chemical Reaction Systems ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Catalyzed Reactions ◽  
Self Replication

Explaining origins of life requires us to explain how self-replication arises. Specifically, how can self-replicating entities develop spontaneously from chemical reaction systems in which no reaction is self-replicating? Previous models either supply a framework for minimal living systems or only consider catalyzed reactions, and thus fail to provide a comprehensive theory. We establish a general model for chemical reaction systems that properly accounts for energetics, kinetics and conservation laws. We find that (1) some systems are collectively-catalytic (e.g., the citric acid cycle), while others self-replicate as a whole (e.g., the formose reaction); (2) side reactions do not always inhibit such systems; (3) many alternative chemical universes often contain one or more such systems; (4) in some self-replicating systems, the entropy of certain parts spontaneously decreases; (5) complex self-replicating molecules emerge spontaneously from simple reaction systems through a sequence of transitions. Together these results start to explain origins of prebiotic evolution.

scholarly journals Variant and invariant states for chemical reaction systems

2015 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 23-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Rodrigues ◽  
S. Srinivasan ◽  
J. Billeter ◽  
D. Bonvin
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Reaction ◽  
Reaction Systems ◽  
Chemical Reaction Systems ◽  
Invariant States

On decoupling rate processes in chemical reaction systems – Methods and applications

2018 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 296-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Billeter ◽  
Diogo Rodrigues ◽  
Sriniketh Srinivasan ◽  
Michael Amrhein ◽  
Dominique Bonvin
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Reaction ◽  
Reaction Systems ◽  
Chemical Reaction Systems ◽  
Rate Processes
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