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-component system can use energy and nutrients by means of either 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 protocell.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Apel, C. L., Deamer, D. W. and Mautner, M. N.: 2002, Self-Assembled Vesicles of Monocarboxylic Acids and Alcohols: Conditions for Stability and for the Encapsulation of Biopolymers, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1559, 1–9.
Blocher, M., Liu, D., Walde, P. and Luisi, P. L.: 1999, Liposome-Assisted Selective Polycondensation of α-Amino Acids and Peptides, Macromolecules 32, 7332–7334.
Borghans, J. A. M., de Boer, R. J. and Segel, L. A.: 1996, Extending the Quasi-Steady State Approximation by Changing Variables, Bull. Math. Biol. 58, 43–63.
Chen, L., Lucia, L. and Whitten, D. G.: 1998, Cooperative Electron Transfer Fragmentation Reactions. Amplification of a Photoreaction through a Tandem Chain Fragmentation of Acceptor and Donor Pinacols, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 120, 439–440.
Eigen, M.: 1971, Selforganization of Matter and the Evolution of Macromolecules, Naturwiss. 58, 465–523.
Happel, R. and Stadler, P. F.: 1999, Autocatalytic Replication in a CSTR and Constant Organization, J. Math. Biol. 38, 422–434.
Johnston, W.K., Unrau, P. J., Lawrence, M. J., Glasner, M. E. and Bartel, D. P.: 2001, RNA-Catalyzed RNA Polymerization: Accurate and General RNA-Templated Primer Extension, Science 292, 1319–1325.
Luisi, P. L., Walde, P. and Oberholzer, T.: 1994, Enzymatic RNA Synthesis in Self-Reproducing Vesicles: An Approach to the Construction of a Minimal Synthetic Cell, Ber. Bunsenges. Phys. Chem. 98, 1160–1165.
Nelson, K. E., Levy, M. and Miller, S. L.: 2000, Peptide Nucleic Acids Rather than RNA May Have Been the First Genetic Molecule, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97, 3868–3871.
Nielsen, P. E.: 1993, Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA): A model Structure for the Primordial Genetic Material?, Orig. Life Evol. Biosph. 23, 323–327.
Pohorille, A. and Deamer, D.: 2002, Artificial Cells: Prospects for Biotechnology, Trends Biotech. 20, 123–128.
Rasmussen, S., Chen, L., Nilsson, M. and Abe, S.: 2003, Bridging Nonliving and Living Matter, Artificial Life 9, 269–316.
Segré, D., Ben-Eli, D. and Lancet, D.: 2000, Compositional Genomes: Prebiotic Information Transfer in Mutually Catalytic Noncovalent Assemblies, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97, 4112–4117.
Sievers, D. and von Kiedrowski, G.: 1994, Self-Replication of Complementary Nucleotide-Based Oligomers, Nature 369, 221–224.
Stadler, B. M. R. and Stadler, P. F.: 2003, Molcular Replicator Dynamics, Adv. Complex Syst. 6, 47–77.
Stadler, B. M. R., Stadler, P. F. and Schuster, P.: 2000, Dynamics of Autocatalytic Replicator Networks Based on Higher Order Ligation Reactions, Bull. Math. Biol. 62, 1061–1086.
Stadler, B. M. R., Stadler, P. F. and Wills, P. R.: 2001, Evolution in Systems of Ligation-Based Replicators, Z. Phys. Chem. 21–33, 216.
Stadler, P. F.: 1991, Complementary Replication, Math.Biosc. 107, 83–109.
Szathmáry, E. and Gladkih, I.: 1989, Sub-Exponential Growth and Coexistence of Non-Enzymatically Replicating Templates, J. Theor. Biol. 138, 55–58.
Szostak, J., Bartel, D. and Luisi, P. L.: 2001, Synthesizing Life, Nature 409Suppl., 387–390.
Veronese, A. and Luisi, P. L.: 1998, An Autocatalytic Reaction Leading to Spontaneously Assembled Phosphatidyl Nucleoside Giant Vesicles, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 120, 2662–2663.
Volkov, A. G., Gugeshashvili, M. I. and Deamer, D. W.: 1995, Energy Conversion at Liquid/Liquid Interfaces: Artificial Photosynthetic Systems, Electrochimica Acta 40, 2849–2868.
von Kiedrowski, G.: 1986, A Self-Replicating Hexadeoxynucleotide, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 25, 932–935.
von Kiedrowski, G.: 1993, Minimal Replicator Theory I: Parabolic versus Exponential Growth, Bioorganic Chemistry Frontiers, Vol. 3. Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 115–146.
Walde, P., Wick, R., Fresta, M., Mangone, A. and Luisi, P. L.: 1994, Autopoietic Self-Reproduction of Fatty Acid Vesicles, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 116, 11649–11654.
Whitten, D. G., Chen, L., Geiger, H. C., Perlstein, J. and Song, X.: 1998, Self-Assembly of Aromatic-Functionalized Amphiphiles: The Role and Consequences of Aromatic-Aromatic Noncovalent Interactions in Building Supramolecular Aggregates and Novel Assemblies, J. Phys. Chem. B 102, 10098–10111.
Wills, P. R., Kauffman, S. A., Stadler, B. M. and Stadler, P. F.: 1998, Selection Dynamics in Autocatalytic Systems: Templates Replicating through Binary Ligation, Bull. Math. Biol. 60, 1073–1098.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rasmussen, S., Chen, L., Stadler, B.M.R. et al. Proto-Organism Kinetics: Evolutionary Dynamics of Lipid Aggregates with Genes and Metabolism. Orig Life Evol Biosph 34, 171–180 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ORIG.0000009838.16739.40
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ORIG.0000009838.16739.40