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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 10: Focus Session: Nonlinear Dynamics in Biological Systems I (joint session DY/BP)

BP 10.5: Vortrag

Dienstag, 18. März 2025, 10:45–11:00, H43

Surviving the first "winter": Protocells with polymerization reactions protects against environmental fluctuations — •Xi Chen, Jens-Uwe Sommer, and Tyler Harmon — Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research, Dresden, Germany

The origin of life has been a long standing question with various hypotheses describing the emergence of the first protocells. Phase separated condensates are promising candidates for protocells because they are compartments that enrich specific polymers and host nonequilibrium reactions that leads to growth and division. However, the ability of protocells to survive in an environment that has large fluctuations, such as temperature and composition, is poorly understood. We show with a mean-field model that condensates formed by polymers which undergo nonequilibrium polymerization/depolymerization reactions exhibit significant robustness to large environmental fluctuations.

This robustness occurs when the nonequilibrium polymerization reactions are faster inside condensate phases than outside. The first condensate does not form until environmental factors lead to strong enough reactions that polymers long enough to phase separate form. The effects of nonequilibrium polymerization is then fully realized because a condensate exists. From here, the condensate does not dissolve until the nonequilibrium reactions are diminished to significantly below when the condensate formed. Altogether, this forms a hysteretic loop with respect to the environmental factors that drive nonequilibrium reactions. We show this hysteretic loop prevents protocells from dying from environmental fluctuations.

Keywords: Nonequilibrium polymerization reactions; Condensates; Protocells