Recursiveness, Switching, and Fluctuations in a Replicating Catalytic Network

TL;DR

This paper investigates a protocell model with catalyzing molecules, revealing three distinct phases of chemical composition transfer and analyzing molecule distribution patterns under different conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a model demonstrating how recursive chemical compositions emerge and fluctuate in protocells, highlighting the role of switching dynamics and hypercycle formation.

Findings

Identifies three phases: no recursion, recursion, and switching between them.

Shows molecule distributions are log-normal in recursive states.

Explains distributions with a heuristic model involving hypercycles.

Abstract

A protocell model consisting of mutually catalyzing molecules is studied in order to investigate how chemical compositions are transferred recursively through cell divisions under replication errors. Depending on the path rate, the numbers of molecules and species, three phases are found: fast switching state without recursive production, recursive production, and itinerancy between the above two states. The number distributions of the molecules in the recursive states are shown to be log-normal except for those species that form a core hypercycle, and are explained with the help of a heuristic argument.