SYNCHRONIZATION PHENOMENA IN PROTOCELL MODELS

A protocell comprises at least one kind of“container”(typically an amphiphile) and one kind of replicator molecule. There are therefore two kinds of reactions whichare crucial for the working of the protocell, which will be called here keyreactions: those which synthesize the container molecules and those whichsynthesize the replicators.The two key reactions may take place at different rates. However, toachieve sustained protocell growth and avoiding death by dilution it isnecessary that the two are proceed at equal rate, a condi-tion referred to as synchronization. With our models we are able to prove that synchronization is an emergent property in contrast to earlier models, like the well–knownChemoton where synchronization was achieved by ad hoc hypothesesconcerning the form of kinetic equations.We consider here several protocells models both linear and non–linear inreplicators kinetic (the overall model is definitely non–linear because of thedivision event), moreover some models posses only autoreplicator moleculeswithout interaction between them while other models has either catalyticor inhibitory interaction between replicators.