Life Cycle of a Minimal Protocell - A Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study

Cross-reactions and other systematic difficulties generated by the coupling of functional chemical subsystems pose the largest challenge for assembling a viable protocell in the laboratory. Our current work seeks to identify and clarify such key issues as we represent and analyze in simulation a full implementation of a minimal protocell. Using a 3D dissipative particle dynamics simulation method, we are able to address the coupled diffusion, self-assembly, and chemical reaction processes required to model a full life cycle of a protocell composed of coupled genetic, metabolic, and container subsystems. Utilizing this minimal structural and functional representation of the constituent molecules, their interactions, and their reactions, we identify and explore the nature of the many linked processes for the full protocellular system. Obviously the simplicity of this simulation method combined with the inherent system complexity prevents us from expecting quantitative simulation predicti...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: ALIFE
• Authors: Harold Fellermann, Steen Rasmussen, Hans-Joachim Ziock, Ricard V. Solé
• Keywords: ALIFE 2007, Chemical Reactions, Functional Chemical Subsystems, Modeling And Simulation, Simulation