title: Bistability and Bifurcation in Minimal Self-Replication and Nonenzymatic Catalytic Networks.
abstract: Bistability and bifurcation, found in a wide range of biochemical networks, are central to the proper function of living systems. We investigate herein recent model systems that show bistable behavior based on nonenzymatic self-replication reactions. Such models were used before to investigate catalytic growth, chemical logic operations, and additional processes of self-organization leading to complexification. By solving for their steady-state solutions by using various analytical and numerical methods, we analyze how and when these systems yield bistability and bifurcation and discover specific cases and conditions producing bistability. We demonstrate that the onset of bistability requires at least second-order catalysis and results from a mismatch between the various forward and reverse processes. Our findings may have far-reaching implications in understanding early evolutionary processes of complexification, emergence, and potentially the origin of life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Nathaniel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Indrajit
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Maity
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 02167, USA.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Peacock-Lopez
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Gonen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ashkenasy
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D019418:Evolution, Chemical; D008128:Logic; D008954:Models, Biological; D008956:Models, Chemical; D012996:Solutions
chemical_list: D012996:Solutions
keywords: analytical methods; autocatalysis; bifurcation; bistability; kinetics