Prebiotic chemistry, artificial life, and complexity theory: what do they tell us about the origin of biological systems?

Abstract

Although the origin of selfsustaining, autoreplicating systems capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution is still unknown, a research program based on the hypothesis of chemical and precellular evolution has provided a freamework within which the abiotic synthesis of biochemical monomers and membrane components, the experimental study of replicative systems, and the interactions between different ribozymes and a potentially wide range of substrates including amino acids, can be incorporated into a coherent historical narrative of evolutionary events. The significance of mathematical models and computerbased simulations of autocatalytic cycles based on complexity theory to the study of the origin of life will be considerable enhanced when experimental evidence supporting them becomes available.