The chemical reaction networks (CRNs), which led to the transition on early Earth from geochemistry biochemistry remain unknown. We show that simplest substances—bicarbonate, sulfite/sulfate, and ammonium—were converted peptides in one geological setting Sammox (sulfite/sulfate reduction coupled anaerobic ammonium oxidation)-driven CRNs under mild hydrothermal conditions. Peptides comprise 15 p...

A localized source of buoyancy flux in a nonreactive fluid medium creates a plume. The flux can be provided by either heat, a compositional difference between the fluid comprising the plume and its surroundings, or a combination of both. For autocatalytic plumes produced by the iodate-arsenous acid reaction, however, buoyancy is produced along the entire reacting interface between the plume and...

We determine conditions under which a random biochemical system is likely to contain a subsystem that is both autocatalytic and able to survive on some ambient 'food' source. Such systems have previously been investigated for their relevance to origin-of-life models. In this paper we extend earlier work, by finding precisely the order of catalysation required for the emergence of such self-sust...

The set of steady state solutions to a reaction–diffusion equation modeling an autocatalytic chemical reaction is completely determined, when the reactor has spherical geometry, and the spatial dimension is n= 1 or 2 for any reaction order, or n 3 for subcritical reaction order. Bifurcation approach and analysis of linearized problems are used to establish exact multiplicity and precise global ...

BACKGROUND In previous work, RAF theory has been developed as a tool for making theoretical progress on the origin of life question, providing insight into the structure and occurrence of self-sustaining and collectively autocatalytic sets within catalytic polymer networks. We present here an extension in which there are two "independent" polymer sets, where catalysis occurs within and between ...

This paper develops some basic principles to study autocatalytic networks and exploit their structural properties in order to characterize their inherent fundamental limits and tradeoffs. In a dynamical system with autocatalytic structure, the system’s output is necessary to catalyze its own production. We consider a simplified model of Glycolysis pathway as our motivating application. First, t...

In most theories concerning the origin of life autocatalytic sets are supposed to play an important role in the phase transition between non-living and living matter. Although several theoretical models describe this phase transition, it is very hard to recreate the experimental conditions in wet lab. We here introduce a stochastic model of catalytic reaction networks with energy constraints, d...