title: Uncertainty of prebiotic scenarios: the case of the non-enzymatic reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle.
abstract: We consider the hypothesis of the primordial nature of the non-enzymatic reverse tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle and describe a modeling approach to quantify the uncertainty of this hypothesis due to the combinatorial aspect of the constituent chemical transformations. Our results suggest that a) rTCA cycle belongs to a degenerate optimum of auto-catalytic cycles, and b) the set of targets for investigations of the origin of the common metabolic core should be significantly extended.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Dmitry Yu
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Zubarev
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Dmitrij
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rappoport
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Alán
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aspuru-Guzik
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D002952:Citric Acid Cycle; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways / Q000235:genetics*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D000069497:Origin of Life; D011789:Quantum Theory