What is special about autocatalysis?

The single-step autocatalytic reaction A + X ↔ 2X in different environments—batch reactor, flow reactor, logistic equation—is studied by means of conventional deterministic kinetics and as a stochastic process. Self-enhancement requires an initial concentration of the autocatalyst X—at least in seed...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monatshefte für Chemie Vol. 150; no. 5; pp. 763 - 775
Main Author: Schuster, Peter
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01.05.2019
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Analytical Chemistry
Autocatalysis
Bifurcations
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
Chemistry/Food Science
Fitness
Inorganic Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
Physical Chemistry
Populations
Reaction kinetics
Review
Stochastic processes
Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
Variations
Master equation
Reaction kinetics
Evolution
Replication
Stochastic simulation algorithm
Autocatalysis
Optimization
ISSN:0026-9247, 1434-4475
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The single-step autocatalytic reaction A + X ↔ 2X in different environments—batch reactor, flow reactor, logistic equation—is studied by means of conventional deterministic kinetics and as a stochastic process. Self-enhancement requires an initial concentration of the autocatalyst X—at least in seeding amounts—for starting the reaction. Deterministic solution curves have sigmoid shapes. At small concentrations, three stochastic phenomena are observed: (1) thermal fluctuations, (2) stochastic delay, and (3) stochastic bifurcations and anomalous fluctuations in case of multiple final states. The introduction of heterogeneous populations containing subspecies with different fitness values gives rise to natural selection in all three environments investigated here. In large populations, survival of the fittest is observed, whereas random fluctuations may result in selection of each of the subspecies. Then, the fitness values determine only probabilities of selection. The fittest subspecies, of course, has the largest probability of selection. There is a smooth transition to neutral evolution where the probabilities of selection are the same for all subspecies. Graphical abstract
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0026-9247
1434-4475
DOI:10.1007/s00706-019-02437-z