Stochastic innovation as a mechanism by which catalysts might self-assemble into chemical reaction networks
- Justin A. Bradford † and
- Ken A. Dill ‡ , §
- †Graduate Group in Biophysics and
- ‡Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143
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Communicated by Christian de Duve, Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology, Brussels, Belgium, April 16, 2007 (received for review June 29, 2006)
Abstract
We develop a computer model for how two different chemical catalysts in solution, A and B, could be driven to form AB complexes, based on the concentration gradients of a substrate or product that they share in common. If A's product is B's substrate, B will be attracted to A, mediated by a common resource that is not otherwise plentiful in the environment. By this simple physicochemical mechanism, chemical reactions could spontaneously associate to become chained together in solution. According to the model, such catalyst self-association processes may resemble other processes of “stochastic innovation,” such as Darwinian evolution in biology, that involve a search among options, a selection among those options, and then a lock-in of that selection. Like Darwinian processes, this simple chemical process exhibits cooperation, competition, innovation, and a preference for consistency. This model may be useful for understanding organizational processes in prebiotic chemistry and for developing new kinds of self-organization in chemically reacting systems.
Footnotes
- §To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dill{at}maxwell.ucsf.edu
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Author contributions: J.A.B. and K.A.D. designed research; J.A.B. performed research; J.A.B. analyzed data; and J.A.B. and K.A.D. wrote the paper.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0703522104/DC1.
- Abbreviations:
- GF,
- genetics-first;
- MF,
- metabolism-first.
- © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
