Abstract

Two kinetic models describing the emergence of autopoietic chemical units are presented and discussed: the single reagent autopoietic mechanism (SRAM) and a reduced version (rSRAM). The proposed schemes are inspired to the autopoietic vesicles studied by Zepik et al (2001 Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl. 40 199–202). Deterministic and stochastic analyses are then performed in order to obtain conditions for growth, homeostasis and decay time behaviours of the overall amphiphiles concentration. Only the reduced SRAM is able to exhibit all the three regimes as experimentally observed and in order to obtain details on the time evolution of the aggregates’ size distribution, stochastic simulations are carried out. What emerges from the rSRAM simulation outcomes is that random fluctuations can act as selection rules for the size of the autopoietic units in the homeostatic regime suggesting how, in a prebiotic scenario, stochastic fluctuations can select the more robust, in this case larger, as the fittest ‘organisms’.

Autore Pugliese

• Mavelli Fabio

Tutti gli autori

• MAVELLI F.

Titolo volume/Rivista

Non Disponibile

Anno di pubblicazione

2010

ISSN

1478-3967

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

13

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Scopus

14

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Settori ERC

Non Disponibile

Codici ASJC

Non Disponibile