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Evolutionary Potential and Requirements for Minimal Protocells

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Prebiotic Chemistry

Part of the book series: Topics in Current Chemistry ((TOPCURRCHEM,volume 259))

Abstract

Minimal protocell concepts have high intellectual and practical value. Following chemoton theory, developed by Tibor Gánti in 1971, we suggest that a minimal protocell satisfying all life criteria should consist of three subsystems: a metabolic network producing materials for the production of all three subsystems at the expense of the difference between food and waste products, a genetic subsystem based on template polymerization and a boundary subsystem consisting of a bilayer vesicle. All three subsystems are autocatalytic and the system as a whole (called chemoton) is also autocatalytic. The chemoton can undergo spatial reproduction in the right parameter domain. Various infrabiological systems can be constructed from any two subsystems; we review the experimental attempts aimed at such a goal. As the complexity of the realized systems increases, the problem of unwanted side reactions becomes more and more dramatic in non-enzymatic systems. No satisfactory solution to the problem of metabolite channeling is known.

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Abbreviations

AL:

artificial life

EC:

Enzyme Commission

GARD:

graded autocatalysis replication domain

PNA:

peptide nucleic acid

SCM:

stochastic corrector model

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collegium Budapest, Institute for Advanced Study, Szentháromság u. 2, 1014, Budapest, Hungary

    Eörs Szathmáry, Mauro Santos & Chrisantha Fernando

  2. Research Group of Theoretical Biology and Ecology, Eötvös University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, 1117, Budapest, Hungary

    Eörs Szathmáry

  3. Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia, Grup de Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193, Barcelona, Spain

    Mauro Santos

  4. Department of Informatics, Center for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics, University of Sussex, BN1 9RH, Falmer, UK

    Chrisantha Fernando

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  1. Eörs Szathmáry
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  2. Mauro Santos
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  3. Chrisantha Fernando
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Correspondence to Eörs Szathmáry .

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Peter Walde

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Szathmáry, E., Santos, M., Fernando, C. Evolutionary Potential and Requirements for Minimal Protocells. In: Walde, P. (eds) Prebiotic Chemistry. Topics in Current Chemistry, vol 259. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/tcc001

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