title: Conditions for evolvability of autocatalytic sets: a formal example and analysis.
abstract: We provide a formal but visually clear example of how a set of minimal necessary conditions for evolvability of autocatalytic sets is satisfied in a simple model of chemical reaction systems. Furthermore, we show how these conditions can be captured and analyzed with RAF theory, and how the results can be generalized with a somewhat more elaborate example. Finally, we argue that our results clearly support the hypothesis that autocatalytic sets can be evolvable, and that this might even be an expected property of such sets.
authors.affiliation: SmartAnalytiX.com, Lausanne, Switzerland, wim@WorldWideWanderings.net.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hordijk
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steel
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002384:Catalysis; D003198:Computer Simulation; D019020:Directed Molecular Evolution; D008956:Models, Chemical