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The Origin of Life, Evolution, and Functional Organization

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Evolutionary Biology: Exobiology and Evolutionary Mechanisms

Abstract

The idea that autocatalytic sets played an important role in the origin of life is not new. Neither is the idea that autocatalytic sets can tell us something about the evolution and functional organization of living systems. However, most of these ideas have, until recently, remained at a conceptual level, and very few concrete, mathematically sound, and practically applicable results had been achieved. In this chapter, we review and discuss recent results on a mathematical framework of autocatalytic sets that could take the idea out of the conceptual realm, and provide a formal and powerful way to investigate autocatalytic sets in the context of the origin of life, evolution, and functional organization.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partly funded by the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution (AWCMEE).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SmartAnalytiX.com, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Wim Hordijk

  2. Biomathematics Research Centre, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Mike Steel

  3. University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA

    Stuart Kauffman

Authors
  1. Wim Hordijk
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  2. Mike Steel
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  3. Stuart Kauffman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wim Hordijk .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS UMR 6632, Labo. Evolution Biologique et, Université d'Aix-Marseille, place Victor Hugo 3, Marseille CX 03, 13331, France

    Pierre Pontarotti

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Hordijk, W., Steel, M., Kauffman, S. (2013). The Origin of Life, Evolution, and Functional Organization. In: Pontarotti, P. (eds) Evolutionary Biology: Exobiology and Evolutionary Mechanisms. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38212-3_4

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