A theory for the origin of a self-replicating chemical system. II. Computer simulation of the autogen.

In order to better understand the feasibility and limitations of the autogen (White 1980), a computer simulation based on the fluctuating clay environment was used to test whether autocatalytic growth would occur under various conditions. The results suggest that overall accuracies of replication and translation in the range of 90% and 10%, and protoenzyme turnover numbers of 10--120 monomers/protoenzyme/day are adequate for exponential growth. Nucleation of the components of the autogen from random background oligomers would be extremely rapid if oligomers lengths 2--6 were adequately functional, whereas oligomer lengths much greater than 10 are prohibited. The autogen would most likely nucleate and grow to dominance either rapidly (10--100 cycles of roughly 1 day each) or not at all.