CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 741Origins and Evolution of LifeRNA and protein synthesis mechanismsEvolution and Genetic Dynamics

Autocatalytic sets of proteins

Kauffman, Stuart A.·1986·Journal of Theoretical Biology
DOI 10.1016/s0022-5193(86)80047-9
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

This article investigates the possibility that the emergence of reflexively autocatalytic sets of peptides and polypeptides may be an essentially inevitable collective property of any sufficiently complex set of polypeptides. The central idea is based on the connectivity properties of random directed graphs. In the set of amino acid monomer and polymer species up to some maximum length, M, the number of possible polypeptides is large, but, for specifiable "legitimate" end condensation, cleavage and transpeptidation exchange reactions, the number of potential reactions by which the possible polypeptides can interconvert is very much larger. A directed graph in which arrows from smaller fragments to larger condensation products depict potential synthesis reactions, while arrows from the larger peptide to the smaller fragments depict the reverse cleavage reactions, comprises the reaction graph for such a system. Polypeptide protoenzymes are able to catalyze such reactions. The distribution of catalytic capacities in peptide space is a fundamental problem in its own right, and in its bearing on the existence of autocatalytic sets of proteins. Using an initial idealized hypothesis that an arbitrary polypeptide has a fixed a priori probability of catalyzing any arbitrary legitimate reaction to assign to each polypeptide those reactions, if any, which it catalyzes, the probability that the set of polypeptides up to length M contains a reflexively autocatalytic subset can be calculated and is a percolation problem on such reaction graphs. Because, as M increases, the ratio of reactions among the possible polypeptides to polypeptides rises rapidly, the existence of such autocatalytic subsets is assured for any fixed probability of catalysis. The main conclusions of this analysis appear independent of the idealizations of the initial model, introduce a novel kind of parallel selection for peptides catalyzing connected sequences of reactions, depend upon a new kind of minimal critical complexity whose properties are definable, and suggest that the emergence of self replicating systems may be a self organizing collective property of critically complex protein systems in prebiotic evolution. Similar principles may apply to the emergence of a primitive connected metabolism. Recombinant DNA procedures, cloning random DNA coding sequences into expression vectors, afford a direct avenue to test the distribution of catalytic capacities in peptide space, may provide a new means to select or screen for peptides with useful properties, and may ultimately lead toward the actual construction of autocatalytic peptide sets.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/s0022-5193(86)80047-9

Cites

1 of 1 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Other transitions involve the jump to novel properties associated with increased network connectivity, such as the emergence of autocatalytic cycles out of random chemical reactions once the number of possible reactions crosses the percolation threshold.

    “Other transitions involve the jump to novel properties associated with increased network connectivity. This would be the case of the emergence of autocatalytic cycles out of random chemical reactions (figure 10c) once the number of possible reactions crosses the percolation threshold (a non-equilibrium phase transition) [381–384].”

    From Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems (2024) · cites this paper as [381]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kauffman, S. A.
Affiliations
University of Pennsylvania (US)
Corresponding author
Kauffman, Stuart A.
ORCID
Kauffman, Stuart A.
Venue
Journal of Theoretical Biology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
1986-03
Volume
119
Issue
1
Pages
1-24
ISSN
0022-5193 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/s0022-5193(86)80047-9
OpenAlex
W2020454825
Cited by
741
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 30 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 27
FWCI
7.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Journal of Theoretical Biology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM22341)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
Keywords
autocatalytic sets, polypeptides, protein evolution, prebiotic evolution, reaction graphs, directed graphs, percolation, self-replicating systems, primitive metabolism, transpeptidation
MeSH terms
Amino Acids, Catalysis, Kinetics, Models, Biological, Peptide Biosynthesis, Polymers, Probability, Protein Conformation, Protein Biosynthesis

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review