Mutual catalysis in sets of prebiotic organic molecules: Evolution through computer simulated chemical kinetics

A thorough outlook on the origin of life needs to delineate a chemically rigorous, self-consistent path from highly heterogeneous, random ensembles of relatively simple organic molecules, to an entity that has rudimentary life-like characteristics. Such entity should be endowed with a capacity to express variation, undergo mutation-like changes and manifest a simple evolutionary process. For simulating such system we developed the Graded Autocatalysis Replication Domain (GARD) model for explicit kinetic analysis of mutual catalysis in sets of random oligomers derived from energized precursor monomers. The kinetic properties of the GARD model are based on vesicle enclosure and expansion. With the additional assumption of spontaneous vesicle splitting, a GARD evolution scenario is envisaged as a consequence of pure chemical kinetics. Here we show how the GARD model can serve as a platform for investigating the dynamics of self-organization mechanisms in molecular evolutionary processes. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.