Alessandro Filisetti, Alex Graudenzi, Roberto Serra, Marco Villani, Davide De Lucrezia, Rudolf Marcel Füchslin, Stuart Kauffman, Norman H. Packard, Irene Poli
Abstract Background The concept of an autocatalytic set of molecules has been
posited theoretically and demonstrated empirically with catalytic RNA molecules.
For this concept to have significance in a realistic origins-of-life scenario,
it will be important to demonstrate the evolvability of such sets. Here, we
employ a Gillespie algorithm to improve and expand on previous simulations of an
empir... hiện toàn bộ
Vittorio Saggiomo, Yana R. Hristova, R. Frederick Ludlow, Sijbren Otto
Abstract Background The assessment of molecular similarity is a key step in the
drug discovery process that has thus far relied almost exclusively on
computational approaches. We now report an experimental method for similarity
assessment based on dynamic combinatorial chemistry. Results In order to assess
molecular similarity directly in solution, a dynamic molecular network was used
in a two-ste... hiện toàn bộ
Today most chemists think that the answer to how life on earth emerged is still
unknown. They assume a gap between chemistry and biology that is still
unbridged. For chemists, understanding the origin of life requires the
experimental modeling of a process that bridges this gap. They will not consider
the problem solved before they are able to perform such tasks. No gap appears
when we are pursuin... hiện toàn bộ
Any living organism can be considered as a component of a dissipative process
coupling an irreversible consumption of energy to the growth, reproduction and
evolution of living things. Close interactions between metabolism and
reproduction are thus required, which means that metabolism has two main
functions. The first one, which is the most easily perceptible, corresponds to
the synthesis of the ... hiện toàn bộ
The hypercycle is a system of replicators, whose members are auto- and
cross-catalytic: replication of each member is catalyzed by at least one other
member of the system. Therefore, the kinetics of growth of every member is at
least second order. In ecology such systems are called mutualistic whose members
are cooperating with each other. The dynamics of such systems are described
broadly by the ... hiện toàn bộ
Autocatalytic sets are often considered a necessary (but not sufficient)
condition for the origin and early evolution of life. Although the idea of
autocatalytic sets was already conceived of many years ago, only recently have
they gained more interest, following advances in creating them experimentally in
the laboratory. In our own work, we have studied autocatalytic sets extensively
from a compu... hiện toàn bộ
Fatty acid vesicles are an important part of protocell models currently studied.
As protocells can be considered as pre-biological precursors of cells, the
models try to contribute to a better understanding of the (cellular) origin of
life and emphasize on 2 major aspects: compartmentalization and replication. It
has been demonstrated that lipid-based membranes are amenable to growth and
division ... hiện toàn bộ
While studying fatty acid vesicles as model primitive cell membranes, we
encountered a dramatic phenomenon in which light triggers the sudden rupture of
micron-scale dye-containing vesicles, resulting in rapid release of vesicle
contents. We show that such vesicle explosions are caused by an increase in
internal osmotic pressure mediated by the oxidation of the internal buffer by
reactive oxygen s... hiện toàn bộ