Proto-Organism Kinetics: Evolutionary Dynamics of Lipid Aggregates with Genes and Metabolism

Steen Rasmussen, Liaohai Chen, Bärbel M. R. Stadler, and Peter F. Stadler
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Submission date: 08. Oct. 2002
Pages: 12
published in: Origins of life and evolution of the biosphere, 34 (2004) 1/2, p. 171-180 
Keywords and phrases: proto-organism, chemical kinetics, replication, origin of life, synthetic cell
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Abstract:
A synthetic proto-organism could be self-assembled by integrating a lipid proto-container with a proto-metabolic subsystem and a proto-genetic subsystem. This three-com\-po\-nent system can use energy and nutrients either by means of redox or photo-chemical reactions, evolve its proto-genome by means of template directed replication, and ultimately die. The evolutionary dynamics of the proto-organism depends crucially on the chemical kinetics of its sub-systems and on their interplay. In this work the template replication kinetics is investigated and it is found that the product inhibition inherent in the ligation-like replication process allows for coexistence of unrelated self-replicating proto-genes in the lipid surface layer. The combined catalytic effects from the proto-genes on the metabolic production rates determine the fate of the strain proto-cell.