The microscopic origin of cooperativity and its effect on long-lifetime kinetic modes for template-free RNA synthesis

Abstract

We implement a model which describes the cooperative effects responsible for collective fluctuations on long lifetime modes in an open prebiotic chemical reactor. The model gives the correlation of spatially coupled subsystems, regarding them as information carriers subject to evolution equations of Eigen's type. We shall concentrate on the de novo(template-free) RNA synthetic apparatus which requires the Qβ-replicase as enzyme catalyst. The micsroscopic symmetry-breaking, given by a non-uniform distribution of RNA sequences, is linked in our model to the macroscopic symmetry-breaking, given by the irreversible amplification of template concentration. The connection between the two events is determined by the propagation of early intrinsic fluctuations along an attractive portion of phase space known as the centre manifold. The propagation leads in the final stage to the attractor which represents macsroscsoic symmetry-breaking. Experimental induction periods for the detection of amplification in template population are in agreement with theoretical calculations. In addition, enzyme and NTP (nucleoside triphosphate) dependence of induction periods are theoretically reproducible. An analysis of the first selfreplicating species unit has been assembled.