Autocatalytic set

An autocatalytic set is a collection of entities, each of which is able to catalyze the creation of others within the set, such that as a whole, the set is able to catalyze its own replication. In this way the set as a whole is said to be autocatalytic. Autocatalytic sets were originally and most concretely defined in terms of entities which are replicating molecules, but have more recently been metaphorically extended to the study of systems in sociology and economics.

Related Topics:
Autocatalytic - Molecule - Sociology - Economics

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Prior to Watson and Crick, biologists considered autocatalytic sets the way metabolism functions in principle, i.e. one protein helps to synthesize another protein and so on. After the discovery of the double helix, the central dogma of genetics was formulated, which is that DNA is transcribed to RNA which is translated to protein. But this highly differentiated structure is clearly too complicated to explain the origin of life, which must have started from something less organized.

Related Topics:
Watson and Crick - Metabolism - Protein - Double helix - Central dogma of genetics - DNA - RNA - Origin of life

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Therefore, several models of the origin of life are based on the notion that life may have arisen through the development of a molecular autocatalytic set. Most of these models which have emerged from the studies of complex systems predict that life arose not from a molecule with any particular trait (such as self-replicating RNA) but from an autocatalytic set.

Related Topics:
Complex system - RNA

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Modern life has the traits of an autocatalytic set, since no particular molecule, nor any class of molecules, is able to replicate itself. There are several models based on autocatalytic sets, including those of Stuart Kauffman and others.

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