Using recursive seeding to detect stable attractors for the matrix effect in vesicles in a prebiotically-plausible chemical system.

Abstract

Membrane-bound compartments are ubiquitous in modern organisms meaning that they evolved early in Earth history. Vesicle dynamics can be altered by diverse organic compounds besides the amphiphiles themselves, including amino acids and nucleobases. Additionally, fatty acid vesicle dynamics can show autocatalytic behaviors as illustrated by the matrix effect, wherein a size-homogeneous population of seed vesicles can cause a size-heterogeneous population of vesicles to shift its size towards the seed population.