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Selection from a pool of self-assembling lipid replicators

Author

Listed:
  • Ignacio Colomer

    (Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford)

  • Arseni Borissov

    (Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford)

  • Stephen P. Fletcher

    (Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford)

Abstract

Replication and compartmentalization are fundamental to living systems and may have played important roles in life’s origins. Selection in compartmentalized autocatalytic systems might provide a way for evolution to occur and for life to arise from non-living systems. Herein we report selection in a system of self-reproducing lipids where a predominant species can emerge from a pool of competitors. The lipid replicators are metastable and their out-of-equilibrium population can be sustained by feeding the system with starting materials. Phase separation is crucial for selective surfactant formation as well as autocatalytic kinetics; indeed, no selection is observed when all reacting species are dissolved in the same phase. Selectivity is attributed to a kinetically controlled process where the rate of monomer formation determines which replicator building blocks are the fittest. This work reveals how kinetics of a phase-separated autocatalytic reaction may be used to control the population of out-of-equilibrium replicators in time.

Suggested Citation

  • Ignacio Colomer & Arseni Borissov & Stephen P. Fletcher, 2020. "Selection from a pool of self-assembling lipid replicators," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-13903-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13903-x
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