How did the very primitive cell-like entities that preceded the first cells (protocells) develop the ability to survive in unpredictable and changing environments?
Researchers developed a new computer model called Araudia to start addressing this question.
In the model, protocells live and evolve in a simulated flow reactor, an artificial environment where nutrients are continually supplied and washed away. The protocells consume nutrients, grow, divide, and occasionally mutate.
Importantly, they can live in a cross-feeding ecology, meaning that they can interact metabolically by exchanging chemical byproducts, which leads to complex interdependencies. The model spans three levels of analysis: metabolism (how cells process resources), ecology (how they interact with each other), and evolution (how populations change over longer timescales).
