Automated exploration of prebiotic chemical reaction space: progress and perspectives
Journal article, 2021
Prebiotic chemistry often involves the study of complex systems of chemical reactions that form large networks with a large number of diverse species. Such complex systems may have given rise to emergent phenomena that ultimately led to the origin of life on Earth. The environmental conditions and processes involved in this emergence may not be fully recapitulable, making it difficult for experimentalists to study prebiotic systems in laboratory simulations. Computational chemistry offers efficient ways to study such chemical systems and identify the ones most likely to display complex properties associated with life. Here, we review tools and techniques for modelling prebiotic chemical reaction networks and outline possible ways to identify self-replicating features that are central to many origin-of-life models.
Computational modelling
Network autocatalysis
Self-replicating structures
Prebiotic chemistry
Chemical reaction networks
Automated chemical space searches
Author
Siddhant Sharma
University of Delhi
Blue Marble Space Institute of Science
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Aayush Arya
Blue Marble Space Institute of Science
Lovely Professional University
Romulo Cruz
Blue Marble Space Institute of Science
National University of Engineering
Henderson James Cleaves
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Blue Marble Space Institute of Science
Life
0024-3019 (ISSN) 2075-1729 (eISSN)
Vol. 11 11 1140Subject Categories
Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified
Embedded Systems
Computer Systems
DOI
10.3390/life11111140
PubMed
34833016