Könnyű Balázs, Czárán Tamás
Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, H-1117 Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, Budapest, Hungary.
Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2015 Jun;45(1-2):105-12. doi: 10.1007/s11084-015-9409-6. Epub 2015 Mar 11.
The RNA World scenario of prebiotic chemical evolution is among the most plausible conceptual framework available today for modelling the origin of life. RNA offers genetic and catalytic (metabolic) functionality embodied in a single chemical entity, and a metabolically cooperating community of RNA molecules would constitute a viable infrabiological subsystem with a potential to evolve into proto-cellular life. Our Metabolically Coupled Replicator System (MCRS) model is a spatially explicit computer simulation implementation of the RNA-World scenario, in which replicable ribozymes cooperate in supplying each other with monomers for their own replication. MCRS has been repeatedly demonstrated to be viable and evolvable, with different versions of the model improved in depth (chemical detail of metabolism) or in extension (additional functions of RNA molecules). One of the dynamically relevant extensions of the MCRS approach to prebiotic RNA evolution is the explicit inclusion of template replication into its assumptions, which we have studied in the present version. We found that this modification has not changed the behaviour of the system in the qualitative sense, just the range of the parameter space which is optimal for the coexistence of metabolically cooperating replicators has shifted in terms of metabolite mobility. The system also remains resistant and tolerant to parasitic replicators.
RNA世界的益生元化学进化假说，是目前最具合理性的概念框架之一，用于模拟生命的起源。RNA在单一化学实体中兼具遗传和催化（代谢）功能，一个代谢相互协作的RNA分子群落将构成一个可行的亚生物子系统，具有进化为原始细胞生命的潜力。我们的代谢耦合复制子系统（MCRS）模型是RNA世界假说的一种空间明确的计算机模拟实现，其中可复制的核酶相互协作，为彼此的复制提供单体。MCRS已被反复证明是可行且可进化的，该模型的不同版本在深度（代谢的化学细节）或扩展（RNA分子的附加功能）方面得到了改进。MCRS方法对益生元RNA进化的动态相关扩展之一，是在其假设中明确纳入模板复制，我们在当前版本中对此进行了研究。我们发现，这种修改在定性意义上并未改变系统的行为，只是对于代谢相互协作的复制子共存而言最优的参数空间范围，在代谢物流动性方面发生了变化。该系统对寄生复制子也仍然具有抗性和耐受性。
