Some possible dynamical constraints for life's origin

Orig Life Evol Biosph. 2009 Dec;39(6):533-44. doi: 10.1007/s11084-009-9170-9.

Abstract

Oscillating biochemical reactions are common in cell dynamics and could be closely related to the emergence of the life phenomenon itself. In this work, we study the dynamical features of some classical chemical or biochemical oscillators where the effect of cell volume changes is explicitly considered. Such analysis enables us to find some general conditions about the cell membrane to preserve such oscillatory patterns, of possible relevance to hypothetical primitive cells in which these structures first appeared.

MeSH terms

  • Biological Clocks*
  • Cell Membrane / metabolism
  • Cell Size
  • Models, Biological
  • Thermodynamics*